Star Trek Odyssey URE
by 117Jorn
Summary: Prepare for the renewal of the odyssey which spans across the multiverse, as the USS Ra Cailum and her crew set out to explore strange new universes, seeking out new life and civilizations, and to boldly go where no man has gone before!
1. Chapter 1

**Earth Spacedock**

 **USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

" _Captain's Log, USS_ Ra-Cailum _, stardate 87359.3: the_ Ra-Cailum _has completed a three month refit following the Iconian War, and I'm finally getting her out of the dock. I'm pleased to report that all hands are eager to get the hell back into deep space, and my chief engineer's been wanting to test some new convoluted warp drive system. If my ship explodes… I blame her._ "

* * *

The Iconian War was over. Peace had been won, but it had been a hard battle.

The core ship of that fight, the USS _Ra Cailum_ , had just finished its repairs and refits.

And now it was preparing to set out again.

"I'm telling you, we just need to get back to building starbases. No more hero bullshit, Takeshi. Simple, boring construction duty. The LAST time we pulled hero bullshit, our ship got fucked."

"Yeah, boring is good. VERY good."

Ronald Pinkerton downed a large amount of what had been called a 'warrior's drink', much to Takeshi Yamato's discomfort. "By the way, did you get your present?"

"I did, yeah," Takeshi replied. "Still prefer the Pulsewave Rifle, I think it's MACO issue, but the shotgun will certainly help when I can't use the pulsewave." He paused for a bit. "Just need to have Sonja fit it with a grenade launcher to match the Pulsewave."

His commander shook his head. "That is the most stupid thing I've heard come out of your mouth. The POINT of a shotgun is for close-in. Adding a grenade launcher makes it harder to use that way, not to mention the M1897 wasn't designed for it."

Before the fight could begin, the PA pinged. " _Captain Asshole, Captain Asshole, please report to the bridge._ "

"Duty calls," Takeshi said with a chuckle, as both officers stepped into the turbolift, which quickly rose up towards the bridge.

When the doors opened onto the bridge, Takeshi's wife, Luna, turned and spotted them. "Captain on deck!" she announced.

Ron just waved them off as he sat down "Status?"

"Everything's set up," Sonja stated on the comm. "That fancy wormhole drive's been installed without blowing anything up. Once we warp out to Pluto we can begin the first test."

"Larcei's safely tucked in in her quarters," Luna added. "Still can't believe she managed to pout her way onto the ship…"

"She is NOT staying."

"Oh, come on, Ron."

"Od-dee-see. Spell it for me. It's, uh, 39 years ago, involved the Jem'Hadar and a KAMIKAZE RUN?!"

THAT was the nail in the coffin for the families-on-starships program. The others were the battle of Wolf 359 and the destruction of the _Enterprise_ -D, the _Yamato_ and his mother's insistence to END that foolishness before it got worse.

"You know she's just going to pout again when you want her to leave, Ron," Takeshi remarked. "And I don't care how intense your glare is, or how resistant you are to other glares - from what I've seen, that pout is the ONE thing that always causes you to crumble."

"I'll just beam her back to Earth. From the bridge."

"And cause her to puke?"

"She was one! Cassie, back me up here!"

The ship's AI (and Ron's girlfriend, which confused Takeshi to the point of time travel) refused to get involved. "Sir, can we just leave spacedock and do this test?"

"Fine, fine. SONJA!"

* * *

"What's up, boss?"

"Fire up that matter/antimatter reaction! We're leaving port!"

"You got it, boss! Mitod, Matt, new girl, GET MOVING!"

"Right!" Matthew 'Matt' Williams replied, working on his console to get the core going.

The Orion kicked the twintailed brunette straight out of the Academy in the head to get her moving. "Sheesh, no need to get violent!"

"Get moving, Makinami!"

The glasses-wearing girl bent over backwards, sloppily saluting the Orion engineer before running off, priming the ports. "Matter/antimatter reaction at 1/1! And the smell of fresh paint on the injector ports is LOVELY!"

Sonja stared at the new girl, eyebrow raised. "We're good, boss. Riza, please do your thing."

* * *

Riza Pinkerton smirked. "Right. Full impulse, right out of the gate!"

Takeshi strapped in. Full impulse was NOT something done in spacedock - it was against regs to do anything beyond maneuvering thrusters - but Riza did it anyway.

The _Odyssey_ -Class starship shot out of the barely repaired station, causing the dockworkers to scream at them.

* * *

"Damn bitch! One of these days she's going to kill EVERYONE on that ship!"

Quinn smiled. "We need people like them, Edward. You just don't like them because Ron doesn't respect you."

"He doesn't respect _anyone_ of our rank," Admiral Hayate Yagami of Starfleet Technical Intelligence Group Spec Ops Section 6 replied. "Jellico here is the only one who believes respect has to be given to him on a silver platter - the rest of us just acknowledge Ron's crassness and move on."

"He respects us, Yagami. But only if we prove worthy of it. He's destined for great things. Like Kirk, Picard and all the rest. He just doesn't want to do it."

Hayate smiled knowingly. "No. No, he does not."

* * *

Nanoha Takamachi watched as the _Ra Cailum_ shot towards them. Her trainees began to panic. "He wouldn't!"

Her face was flat as glass. "Yes. He would."

The ship inverted, passing over the hull of the USS _Musashi_ with only meters to spare, then returned to the regular orientation.

" _So, how many, Nano?_ "

"I'll have to take a headcount, Ron! Thanks!"

The _Ra Cailum_ then jumped straight to warp. "The Academy suffered when that man left."

"Suffered? The man's insane!"

"Insanity is what Starfleet does. He's from the old school, kiddies. Take a good look. THAT is how Starfleet officers from the 23rd Century were like. And it's a damn shame that he's not teaching anymore."

* * *

 **USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

"So, head count, please. All shuttles and fighters?"

"Shuttles and fighters all properly stowed and secured," Takeshi replied.

"Ok, SIF and IDF?"

"100% and ready for wormhole travel."

Ron sighed. "This was a bad idea. Why the hell are they using an _Oddy_ for this? A _Connie_ or something smaller would be perfect, not a superdreadnought."

"Officially, because they want to see what would happen if a subspace efficient ship like the _Odyssey_ -Class entered a semi-stable artificial wormhole," Takeshi replied. "Unofficially? Our least favorite Admiral."

"Fucking Jellico. Sonja, status on the secondary dilithium chamber."

" _Operational. New girl actually knows what she's doing!_ "

"Hook it into the stream. It's time to get this over with. A few test flights and a trip back to Earth to DROP OFF MY NIECE."

" _Right,_ " Sonja replied. After a moment, she said, " _Secondary chamber is hooked up and ready to go._ "

"Corpy, the button please."

"My name's not-" The andorian protested.

"Just push the damn button."

The Andorian grumbled, before activating the switch, and then hitting the button hard.

"HERE WE GO!" The _Ra Cailum_ streaked into warp speed, a flash on the galactic horizon as she entered warp speed.

"Wormhole in 20 seconds. From all reports from the _Enterprise_ , this won't be fun."

"Fun for us! All hands, this is the Captain: brace for fuckiness!"

Takeshi and Luna looked at their commander and brother(in-law). "…Is that even a word?"

Ron raised an eyebrow. "Do I care?"

Soon, the wormhole effect triggered, as the ship entered an artificially-generated wormhole.

"Captain, there's something wrong with the wormhole. It's nothing like the one the 1701 ran into!"

"As in?"

"MORE unstable! We need to shut the drive down! NOW!"

Ron looked at Riza. "Shut it down!"

"I can't!"

"SONJA!"

" _Trying!_ "

The wormhole glowed brighter and brighter. "Oh, why do I get unhappy feelings from this?"

"Q?"

Ron looked thoughtful for a second. "FUCKING Q, I WILL KILL YOU FOR THIS!"

There was a bright flash of light, and then darkness.

* * *

 **Takeshi Yamato: And here we go again.**

 **First up, we had a few problems arise in the old version of this story, and so the only thing we could do was restart.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Yes, well, shit happens. Gives us a chance to do things anew. And guess what? While we were writing these, the ficmaster was putting up our completed original fic's chapters! Gave us time to write these. Right, Jorn?**

 **117Jorn: Exactly. This one we promise will be longer, feature more, and have everything the last one lacked.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Including me! Suprise!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Here we go, boys and girls. Take us to warp!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Earth orbit, near Lagrange point 4**

 **2312 AD - Celestial Being Mothership CBS-71 _Morningstar_**

* * *

" _Ground Control to Major Tom,"_

 _"Ground Control to Major Tom."_

 _"Take your protein pills and put your helmet on._ "

"Do you ever listen to anything else, Captain?"

"I do… but not many people appreciate the classics nowadays."

"You sound like an old geezer…"

A young man with short black hair and crimson red eyes chuckled lightly "So I've been told…" he muttered, leaning back in the seat of the small MS Mothership, lightly floating up in zero G. "But music is music, so I love it all the same… except that Justin Bieber shit."

"Preach," A feminine voice said, as a red-haired, yellow eyed woman of about the same age giggled next to him looking out the main view screen of the ship. "I guess it's better… on my old mothership the silence was almost deafening… just me and my brothers… feels more… _lively_ here… "

"Happy you approve, Nena." The man said, giving her a light nudge to the shoulder. "Plus it's nice to be on a ship that actually _has_ a few guns on it. The original _Ptolemy_ nearly got blasted because of it."

Nena Trinity sighed slightly, reminded of the original four Meisters, and how their last… _meeting_ wasn't exactly all too friendly. The last time she even saw Setsuna was when he saved her… she never even had the chance to thank him for it…

…then again, she was running for her dear life after that… _mercenary_ killed her family. "How _are_ they doing, huh Jaden?" she asked.

Jaden Takeo pulled up a small datapad "Pretty good… heard they found Setsuna still flying Exia." He stated, causing Nena to blink. "They'll probably put him in that 00 machine that Vashti's been working on… once the 0 Raiser is finished though, oh boy… A-Laws gonna get _fuuuucked_."

"It would be unwise to put all our faith into a single mobile suit," Another figure said, a light blonde-haired, blue eyed woman wearing the standard Celestial Being uniform. "One MS can't be everywhere at once."

"Which is why we're here, Twilight," Jaden said. "Keeping CB running while Tieria and Ian get the band back together… we got bets running which pub they'll find Sumeragi in."

"Come on Jaden," The Helmsman of the _Morningstar_ , Adam Parker stated, "She's not _that_ bad..." Jaden gave him a pointed glare. "…okay, she's bad - but at least she can get the job _done_."

"When she's actually sober, yes." He nodded before he sighed. "So, anything from the comms Nata?"

Natasha Lenix looked at her console "Nothing new yet, Cap." She stated, "We're just to resume course and-"

"WHOA!" All heads spun around towards the second tactical officer, Mckenzie Strider's hands flew up.

"…something you wanna share with the class, Mckenzie?"

"Jaden, I just got a big fucking ping on the E-Sensors!" She informed, "Like What-The-Fuck Ping."

"…gonna have to be a bit more specific than that, Micky." Chris Thake, the ship's Gunner stated.

"Guys, whatever just showed up on E-Sensors is _BIG._ " She assured, "And if _I_ can see it, you bet your asses A-Laws can see it somewhere!"

"Assuming it wasn't _caused_ by A-Laws or the ESF." Jaden muttered, thinking for a moment. "Well… shall we check it out?"

The bridge crew all glanced around, before shrugging. "We have nothing else to do," Twilight shrugged, "But I still advise caution."

"Caution is my middle name, Twi." Jaden chuckled, "Adjust course for new heading. Nena? Go get Pride and Hikaru, tell them to suit up and get the RII and GN Cannon II ready."

"Aye aye," Nena said with a short salute, before kicking off the chair towards the bridge exit.

"…I think she's grown on us," Adam stated, as he adjusted the ship's course towards the anomaly.

"And I think we've grown on her," Jaden chuckled, "Just glad we found her first… hate to think what the A-Laws would've done to her… "

* * *

The bridge crew of the _Morningstar_ stared… and stared… and _continued_ to stare at what could only be described as a _dreadnought_. "What… the… fuck… " Jaden muttered, looking at the massive alien-like vessel, structure or whatever.

"One thousand, eighty meters long." Mckenzy informed, "I can't tell what powers the damn thing."

"That thing's bigger than anything the Federation's ever built!" Adam exclaimed. "It looks freaking alien!"

"Flood lights. Let's get a look at her." The ship's forward floods kicked on, covering the hull in sections. "There's something that looks like lettering on the outboard nacelle. Can you get it on monitors?"

The crew got to work, zooming in on the port nacelle, finding lettering.

 _English_ lettering.

"What the fuck?"

"USS… _Ra Cailum_ … NCC-94517-A… United Federation of Planets? What the hell is this thing, Jaden? That's English!"

Jaden's eyes narrowed slightly "That _is_ a mystery…" he muttered. "…Take us closer."

"You're joking, right?"

"We need to learn more about this thing," Jaden informed, "A ship of that size must have a lot of tech behind it, and I'll be damned before I let the A-Laws have it so they can lord it over the world like they do the GN Drives. Once we get into comms range, attempt to hail it… if they can write english, perhaps they can understand english."

"Do as he says," Twilight informed, causing Adam to groan, but obeyed as the _Morningstar_ pushed forward.

"Nata? The floor is yours."

The Comms Operator nodded as she opened hailing frequencies. "This is the Celestial Being Assault Transport _Morningstar_ , CBS-71 to unidentified vessel - USS _Ra Cailum_ , NCC-94517-A, towards our bow. Do you receive us, over?"

All they received was static. " _Ra Cailum_ this is the _Morningstar_. If you need assistance, Please come in." She shook her head. "Either they can't understand us, they don't use our methods of communication, or there's no one on board."

"From the way she's drifting, I'd have to agree on the last one. Bring us in alongside."

"Wasn't there a USS prefix for ancient seagoing ships from the Union's originator, the United States?"

"If the United States built this thing, then it wouldn't be here. Nothing can hide in the Earth Sphere forever. We need to find out who these people are. Or were."

"Aye aye," Adam muttered, as the _Morningstar_ moved in closer.

"I'll head out," Jaden stated, leaving his chair. "Twilight, you have the bridge."

* * *

 **USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

"Ow."

"Yeah, that's a word for it. SONJA!"

Corpsa gripped her console as she got back to her feet. "Communications are offline. Cassie's still operational and making a workaround around the fried circuits, though."

Ron got back into his chair, huffing. "Damage report."

"Internal comms are down, external sensors are overloaded. Warp drive, shields, weapons, impulse—"

"Save me the list, Corpie. What ISN'T offline?"

"Life support, gravity, and holographics."

At that moment, there was a flash of light next to Ron and…

"RONNIE!"

 ** _*Crash_** *

"CASSIE!"

The VERY happy AI glomped her boyfriend, cooing happily. "I thought you were hurt!"

"I'm fine. Or I will be. After you stop _crushing_ my ribs."

She let him go. "Sorry!"

"It's fine." He coughed. "Anything?"

"I've got minimal external and internal sensors back. A few days and I'll… Hello. Ron, there's a ship inbound: 320 kph, docking maneuvers, heading for out starboard airlock, engineering section."

"Get everyone out of that area now. If any security personnel are awake, get them standing by. I want them to see nothing of our people."

"Sir?"

"They think the ship's deserted. I want to see what they do."

* * *

"Open… Open! OPEN GODDAMN YOU!"

Jaden winced slightly "Nena, Comms. Remember?"

"Sorry…" Nena apologized, as she and two others plus Jaden awaited outside the hull of the unmoving starship, around what they assumed to be an airlock in their normal suits. "But… this thing is infuriating!"

"Infuriating! Infuriating!" Nena's purple-colored Haro agreed, flapping its ears wildly.

"It's possible we're just flat out incompatible with what they have," One of the others standing next to them stated, wearing a dark blue normal suit with a green-tinted visor.

"We're using the best technology Celestial Being has to offer," Another man, wearing a lime green normal suit stated, "We should be able to access something as simple as a-"

Suddenly the lights around the airlock flashed green, before the hatch steadily began to open. "HA! GOT IT!" Nena shouted, slapping her hands together. "…No idea _how_ , but I did it!"

"We did it! We did it!"

"Alright, form up on me everyone." Jaden said, as they descended down into the air lock.

"Rules of engagement?" The blue-suited man asked.

"I don't aim to engage anyone, Hikaru," Jaden enforced. "If there are surviving crew to this ship, we help them. If they shoot at us, we shoot back, retreat and get the hell out of here before they try and blast _Morningstar_ to slag."

"Wishful thinking, Captain," Hikaru stated, as they awaited for the airlock to pressurize… before suddenly they all felt the weight of gravity and hit the ground.

"GAH!"

"FUCK!"

"SHIT!"

"OMF!"

…hard.

Jaden groaned as he and the others steadily got back up to their feet "Freaking hell…" he muttered, before tapping his foot. "These guys have _artificial gravity?!_ "

"Clearly they are more advanced that we initially thought," The fourth team member stated, walking towards the console in the air lock control. "I believe this should… There." The airlock then slid open, revealing the steel-colored interior of the ship.

"Whoa… " Nena muttered, poking her head out as she glanced around. "It looks so… so…"

"Human?" Hikaru asked, as the four stepped out into the ship. "I'd almost say it was built _by_ humans… "

"Maybe it was," Jaden muttered, as he walked ahead - the others quickly following behind him. "You sure this isn't some secret Celestial Being ship, Pride?"

"No, even with all the breaches in VEDA's security, I am fairly certain Aeolia Schenberg would tell us if he had a vessel of this size," Pride Eternal stated, as the four plus one Haro continued through the halls of the ship. "And this ship doesn't share the usual CB design specifics either… no traces of GN Particles to the best our sensors can detect… "

"Maybe it's-" Nena began, before a console flashed to life next to her, making her jump "FUCK!"

"Is… that a Terminal?" Jaden asked, looking at the console.

"I… maybe?" Nena said, recomposing herself as she tapped on the console. "Let's see here… okay, it's in english… USS _Ra Cailum_ built at… the fuck?"

"What?"

"It was built at… Earth Space Docks… 2409!"

"…Nena… are you suggesting this ship is from the future?" Hikaru asked.

"I would, but… I'm looking through the history…" Nena said, as she scrolled through the ship. "But its saying all these things… things about the past that sure as hell haven't happened here… like First Contact being in the 21st Century, meeting races called Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons… I don't get it at all!"

Jaden hummed in thought. "Hmmm…" He suddenly stopped and snapped his fingers. "Multiverse theory."

"…what?"

"Multiverse theory, the possibility that other universes exist where things impossible in our universe, are possible there." Jaden stated, "It's crazy… but this ship… it _could_ be from another universe… one similar to our own…"

Hikaru rose his eyebrow at him. "You _do_ realize that sounds like shit from a Sci Fi show, right?" He asked.

"Okay Hikaru, you give me a better explanation," Jaden challenged. Hikaru looked as if he was going to say something… before groaning and grumbling.

"So… do we try and take it back to Krung Thep?" Nena asked. "We could use-"

"Hell no," Jaden shook his head. "I trust them, but we _know_ there are leaks in Celestial Being. We took care of Corner, but we have no idea how many others like him are still out there. I wouldn't be surprised if we still had more moles, and I _refuse_ to let any of the tech that could be on this tug to fall into the hands of A-Laws, or worse. I don't trust even a _clean_ Celestial Being with something like this."

"Then what would you suggest?" Pride asked.

"We figure out what this thing is capable of, and weigh the risks." Jaden stated, "If it's too dangerous, we hide it or destroy it… maybe set it on a course towards the sun or something. We aren't _ready_ for the tech that could be on this boat."

"Let's just see what this boat actually _can_ do before we become dead set on destroying it," Pride stated, as Nena continued to probe what she could in the ship's databanks.

* * *

"They're trying to access our databases."

"Lock out the higher-level systems, but leave a few with light encryptions. Let's see what they look for first."

Takeshi looked at Ron. "What do you think?"

"I think if the first thing they look for is guns, guns, guns, we beam them into space, suits on, decouple from their ship, cloak and stay cloaked until we leave. If not… we'll see. Cassie, quid pro quo: access their databases as sneakily as you can."

"For what?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Historical information, current events, the fucking date, whatever. Anything and everything."

Cassie nodded. "On it."

Luna shook her head. "This is a bad idea. They have access to a primary ODN line; they can easily access the computer cores from there if they figure out how."

"That's why we're going to randomize the codes. Cassie, anything?"

"I'm in," Cassie stated, "Security is… moderate, but nothing special. It appears to be… 2312 AD, but it's not _our_ 2312… we are in Sol, but again not _our_ Sol."

"Cut to the chase."

"From what I've gathered… we're in an alternate universe, Captain."

"DTI and Command are going to have our asses." Corpsa crossed her arms. "And what's worse, giving them access to our database, we're breaking the Prime Directive."

"The Prime Directive can go to hell; we have bigger problems. Cassie, what're they getting into?"

Casssie looked upwards for a second. "Historical records, mostly: they're reading up on the history of Earth, the Federation, the recent conflict with the Iconians…"

Ron facepalmed. "And the GRAND role we played ending it. Ok, what about them? Any idea who they are?"

"Still accessing personnel profiles… but they seem to belong to a group called Celestial Being," she informed. "A group whose purpose is to…" she blinked, before blanching as she struggled not to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Ron… they're a group that's trying to end war."

"What war?"

" _All_ wars. Period."

Ron facepalmed. It was easy to figure out why. "It took 600 million people dying, a decade of woe, destruction, ruin and decay before we made first contact with the Vulcans to get humanity's act together and WE haven't eliminated conflict. That's never fucking happening and I think that's something we can ALL agree with!"

"Begs the question of what war is like in these parts."

"That can wait. Anything further?"

Cassie brought up a holo-PADD. "Just that they got their asses handed to them 4 years ago."

"For being idiots? I damn well hope so!"

"Out of curiosity, just HOW were they planning to 'end all wars'?" Takeshi asked. "I mean, I doubt they were just total pacifists, and if they were, they were REALLY idiots."

"No, they attacked everyone. And everything. If it held a gun, they killed or disarmed it."

"…Even the DOMINION wasn't THAT stupid. They sowed chaos, let the enemy destroy themselves before enforcing their will. As soon as they leave, we're cloaking. I will not suffer stupidity on THAT scale."

"Agreed," Takeshi remarked. "So… for them to take high ground like that, they'd have to have incredible technology compared to their peers…" He turned to Cassie. "OK, what's the political situation down there, both before and after the appearance of this 'Celestial Being' group?"

"Well, before CB began operations, the world was divided into three economic blocs," Cassie informed, projecting a holographic map of Earth, only with three large orbital elevators and a large solar panel array. "They are centered around these three orbital elevators which connect to the solar panel array which circles the whole equator of the world, providing near infinite energy to the earth. These blocs were the Advanced European Union, the Human Reform League, and the Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations, or Union for short. They had treaties in place which banned any faction from attacking the orbital elevators in war, and limited the number of troops which could be deployed at these arrays for defensive purposes. However it seemed that, despite that peace, small proxy wars and ethnic conflicts were popping up in areas like the Middle East, Ireland, South America… the usual places war could've been expected in the 20th and 21st century in our timeline. With all of this, the world was in a constant state of tension between these three bloc's."

"And Celestial Being fucked everything up." Ron interjected bluntly.

"In essence. They disrupted the balance of power before making their enemies band together."

"THAT had to end badly."

"It did. Caused the founding of a united front against CB before the creation of the Earth Sphere Federation. And SERIOUSLY fucked them over."

"Which, if we're being totally objective here, _could_ be considered at least a partial accomplishment of their goals," Takeshi remarked. "One way to end _a_ war is to give both sides another target they have to cooperate to defeat - and if they formed a world government, that means less chances for tension - not zero chance, but less than before."

"Well, that makes up my mind. Fake a warp core breach warning and get them off my ship. We'll phase-shift the ship and use a pair of torpedoes to fake the total destruction of the _Ra Cailum_. Make sure anything they take is harmless to both them and us."

"That's cruel."

"This is me we're talking about. I'm always mean."

"One moment before we do that, Ron," Takeshi said. "Anything else about this Earth Sphere Federation, Cassie? I don't know why, but something still seems a bit off…"

The AI's avatar raised an eyebrow, but then shook her head. "In recent years the ESF formed a sort of world police, called the Autonomous Peace-Keeping Force-"

"They're bad shit." Corpsa predicted.

"Pretty much," Cassie remarked. "This group, called the A-Laws, will do pretty much anything to 'preserve the peace', from arresting anyone who even speaks out against the government to assaulting dissident forces - and I don't think they worry about collateral damage."

"Ouch," Takeshi replied. "Now I know what was feeling off - they may have united the world, but the world developed thugs and bullies to keep that unity." He looked at Ron. "I'm seriously considering making contact with the intruders at the very least, Ron, see if they'd rather just leave this universe and never look back. Who knows? They may be some of the few _smart_ people in this 'Celestial Being' group."

Ron shrugged. "Well, they didn't look for the guns first."

"Actually, they did temporarily look at what we had," Cassie pointed out, "But they didn't look for how to build them or how they work… from their personal comms… I think their leader plans to destroy the ship."

Ron and Takeshi both rose their brows at that. "Destroy us?" They both asked.

"The leader sayings something about not trusting even Celestial Being with this level of tech, let alone the A-Laws… " Cassie informed, before snapping her fingers.

" _Destroy it?!_ " A male voice asked, " _Jaden, with this tech we could beat the A-Laws! We could actually bring peace-_ "

" _At what cost, Pride?_ " A second voice, 'Jaden' Ron assumed. " _We start doing armed interventions again? How long will it be before A-Laws or the ESF get THIS technology, hm? The power to blow up ENTIRE PLANETS?!_ No one _deserves this level of technology, people. I don't want to run even the_ slightest _chance that a mole could bring even an_ iota _of this tech back to A-Laws. If we can't build this shit on our own -_ responsibly _\- without the first thought in our minds being 'WAR, KILL ENEMIES, RAAAH, we don't fucking deserve to have it yet!'_ "

" _But what if the enemies of whoever built_ this _thing come here?_ " Another voice said.

" _We'll DEAL with it when or if it fucking happens, Hikaru_ " Jaden countered. " _Risk is too great. Nena, just copy the historical stuff if you can - then find engineering. Maybe they have a self-destruct system… failing at that, we can probably jurry-rig a nuke from parts we have on the_ Morningstar."

" _Got it Cap… can't shake the feeling we're being watched though..._ "

" _Being watched! Being watched!_ "

"Disarm any destruct device they bring on board." Ron ordered.

"The ship's practically indestructible."

"Even a nuke can damage the antimatter containment pods. That's as bad as Iconian weapons fire. We'll fake it."

"Still," Takeshi commented, "It's nice this guy's kinda indirectly following the prime directive… at least this universe has _some_ people that are as competent as you, Captain."

"Small fucking miracles."

An alarm then went off at tactical, Corpsa rushing to check it. "We've got three ships on approach."

"From where?"

"Bearing 125 mark 48," she said. "Corvette-class power levels."

"Cassie, we got a name for these assholes?"

"CB warbook Ids them as _Baikal_ -Class Heavy Cruisers," Cassie informed. "Closer to cutters for us, but they're fast and heavily armed."

"How heavy?"

"Two 10-Meter grade energy cannons, 256 missiles, 46 fixed laser cannons and six…" She blinked "The hell is a _mobile suit_?"

"I think we're about to find out."

"The boarders are leaving."

* * *

"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FCUK!" Jaden shouted as the four pilots ran back the way they came, quickly getting to the airlock. "OF ALL THE FUCKING TIMES! TWILIGHT, LASER-GUIDE OUR SUITS HERE!"

" _Roger that, deploying RII, MII, Terbulenz, and CII._ " Twilight informed, as they entered the airlock and didn't wait for depressurization as they opened the hatch doors, as they soared back out into space. Using their jetpacks to move them closer towards _Morningstar_ which already began launching their machines: Mobile Suits.

 **BGM: "Sky Titans" by Two Steps from Hell**

The GN-000M2 0 Gundam Mk-II, the GN-003RE Gundam Kyrios Repair, GNW-03/hs-T03 Gundam Throne Drei Turbulenz, and CBY-077B GN Cannon II. three of the four machines emitting the familiar crimson red GN Particles of the Tau drive, however the Mk-II Gundam emitted the well known greenish-yellow particles, just like those of Celestial Being's star team.

The four machines came to a stop, as their cockpits opened - and the pilots all quickly guided themselves within, sealing them up as their displays lit up around them, emitting the 360 degree 'Soccer ball' panoramic view around them. "Report in, everyone." Jaden ordered. "Morningstar 1, standing by."

" _Morningstar 2, standing by._ "

" _Morningstar 3, standing by._ "

" _Morningstar 4, standing by._ "

" _Morningstar Actual, weapons are loaded and ready to engage._ "

"Alright, let's move!" Jaden shouted, as the the four GN-Drive Mobile Suits flared to life, before dashing forward. "Pride, take up long-range firing position on the _Ra Cailum_ , blast any of them that try and get close! Nena, you're with me on anti MS Duties! Hikaru, harass the cruisers, and jam their comms! I don't want them calling for help! _Morningstar_ , provide long-range fire support, use the _Ra Cailum_ for cover if you have too, and no goddamned heroics!"

" _Roger!_ " The four pilots acknowledged, before splitting off in perfect unison like professional acrobats.

* * *

"…the fuck are those?"

"I… believe those are… Mobile Suits."

The bridge crew of the _Ra Cailum_ watched with a degree of fascination at the space battle occurring ahead of them, as the four machines from the _Morningstar_ engaged the eighteen machines of the A-Laws. The larger of the four took up position in front of the _Ra Cailum_ near the bridge, where it was opening fire with the massive guns it had mounted on its body, sniping at the enemies from afar, keeping them on their toes. The second one transformed from a humanoid robot into a fighter jet and arced towards the cruisers as it began harassing them, and meanwhile in the thick of the fighting - the two remaining units were duking it out against the A-Laws machines.

The more plain-looking machine wielded a shield in one hand, and a rifle in the other as it deflected several shots with the shield from the A-Laws, before returning fire, managing to score first blood before it began to dodge and weave through the returning fire with a degree of grace. The second machine mimicked its movements, emitting a larger number of the glowing particles as it fired with an energy gun mounted on its left arm. One of the enemy mobile suits charged in close with a Javelin-like weapon, but it batted it away before drawing out an energy sword - and sliced the attacking MS in half, before darting away as it detonated - returning to the leading machine as the two continued to fight together, covering one-another's backs in a combination of ranged attacks and close-combat melee's.

"Impressive," Ron muttered, fairly interested in what he witnessed. "Using the basic form of the human body to counteract the classic pitfalls of space combat. Not bad. We can actually learn a thing or three from these people. Corpie, make sure those idiots don't damage my ship: those things are as powerful as the disruptor cannons of a Klingon fighter."

"Aye, sir."

Takeshi watched the battle, practically drooling. "Oh, I like what I see, Ron."

"Don't get your hopes up, Takeshi. Melee is forever the last resort and that's NEVER changing."

"Maybe," Takeshi replied. "Still, you have to admit, those things are awesome. I can't believe I'm saying this, but… Iwantone."

"I never said anything against that." Takeshi cursed as he forgot Ron could understand rushed sentences. "Well?"

"Cruiser is changing course, firing at the A-Laws warships. Power levels dropping rapidly per shot, decreasing speed to maintain firepower and defensive shielding with that particle field."

"Hmm. Sonja, power us up. And make it flashy. Shields up!"

* * *

" _Shields are weakening, Jaden! The Condensers are starting to run dry!_ "

"Fall back behind the ship, _Morningstar!_ " Jaden shouted, cursing as a GN-XIII charged forward with a beam saber, as he shoved his shield to block the strike, and then pushed back - knocking the mobile suit off balance, buying him time to whirl up his GN Beam rifle and finish it off. "How's everyone doing with particles?"

" _I'm at 50%, Jaden!_ " Nena shouted, as the Drei danced away from the A-Laws Ahead unit, " _I can't keep using the stealth field like this!_ "

" _35%, I damaged one cruiser, and knocked out the comms of another!_ " Hikaru replied, as the repaired Kyrios flew overhead, chasing down a GN-XIII. " _Running low though!_ "

" _Hikaru, dock with me!_ " Pride informed, as the GN Cannon II unleashed another volley of beam cannon fire at the A-Laws - incinerating a pair of GN-X's. " _I still have 75%, I'll share some with you._ "

' _We NEED to get pure GN Drives damnit._ ' Jaden cursed, as he fell back with the others towards the _Morningstar_. ' _We keep running low of the Tau particles in the middle of every fucking battle! But we can't go to Jupiter NOW of all times!_ '

" _Uhhh, Jaden?!_ " Suddenly Natasha spoke on the comms. " _The, uhh… the big ship? I'm picking up something!_ "

"In English, Nata!" Jaden shouted, "What's-"

 **BGM: "Down with the Enterprise (Choir)" by Two Steps from Hell**

Suddenly, the lights of the 'derelict' ship suddenly began to snap to life, illuminating the ship's hull against the backdrop of space, as the two long engines flared to life with a bluish hue, and the name of the vessel was out to display for all to see. Its sudden spectacle of activation brought with it a temporary pause in battle.

" _What the fuck?!_ " Hikari shouted.

" _Attention, jackasses._ " The voice was loud, commanding and practically demanded obedience. " _This is Captain Ronald Pinkerton of the United Federation of Planets starship_ Ra Cailum _. I don't mind if you kill each other off, but take it somewhere else. Back off to one thousand kilometers. Or I shoot the next moron that fires anything._ "

Jaden examined the outer hull. He saw mentions of 'phaser banks' and 'photon torpedoes', but the ship had no weapon ports, no gun turrets.

" _We don't recognize this 'United Federation of Planets', Katharon scum! You'll die with your Celestial Being allies!_ " One of the _Baikals_ fired a full barrage of missiles at the _Ra Cailum,_ heading for the saucer section.

"No!" Jaden fired on the missiles, trying to save the ship from almost certain doom, but while he destroyed two or three, more made it to the ship before the _Baikal_ fired her beam cannons, the _Ra Cailum's_ saucer enveloped in a cloud of purple smoke.

There was a moment where nothing happened…

" _Cute. Corpsa, kill them_." …before a bright-orange beam emerged from the smoke, spearing into the offending _Baikal's_ bow… and then coming out the stern and _keeping on going_.

Then the cloud shifted as something emerged, the rear section moving with it. The ship emerged… _untouched_.

" _You were safe. General Order One: Starfleet and Federation science personnel will not interfere in the affairs and development of another society. You were fucking SAFE. Until you_ fucking shot at my ship!"

Jaden watched in amazement before grinning.

" _Now you_ **die** _. ALL HANDS! STAND TO BATTLESTATIONS!_ "

"…well…" Jaden muttered, "Looks like it wasn't as abandoned as we thought…"

" _Thank you captain obvious,_ " Nena muttered.

* * *

 **Redemption's Avenger: So, here we are again. Chapter One in a different universe with a different Jaden. Remember: Updates (hopefully) every Monday!**

 **Takeshi Yamato: And yes, Takeshi is drooling over the Mobile Suits.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Typical.**

 **117Jorn: Hey, they are awesome and more practical than fighter craft in space when you think about it. Either way, with the _Ra Cailum_ starting off in 00, expect things to happen a bit different than in the original! Some things may stay the same, others… we'll see :D**

 **Ron the True Fan: Any rate, prepare for death. …And MAJOR headaches for Ribby. Who's in favor of headaches?!**

 **All: AYE!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Thought so.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Earth orbit, near Lagrange point 4**

 **2312 AD - Celestial Being Mothership CBS-71 _Morningstar_**

* * *

The superdreadnought- for it could only be called that- lumbered into motion. The A-LAWs, stunned that the ship not only shrugged off a barrage that would have killed anything else and _cored_ a destroyer, finally shook off their shock.

Bullets flew, missiles screamed, and the destroyer's cannons thundered, but the dreadnought simply shrugged off the damage, and returned it.

A trench on the saucer's underside lit up and let off a beam of orange that was _nothing_ like conventional beam weapons, as was proved when the beam cut right through a GN-XIII _which had its particle shields up at full power._

Several more trenches- both on the underside and top, lit up, lancing out to pick off mobile suits like flies.

" _Screw this! If we can't kill it with beam weapons, we'll have to ram it to death!_ " An Ahead rushed at the port nacelle, building up power to overload as it rammed into the red part, exploding violently.

It did nothing.

* * *

"Shields at 98% and holding. No damage from the kamikaze strike." Corpsa reported, uninterested.

"They don't get it. This ship puts out more power then all of theirs combined. Why the hell are they bothering to shoot at us?"

"Because they're unreasonable idiots?" Luna offered, shrugging exaggeratedly.

"Point taken, Luna. Get me a comm link to the CB command carrier."

* * *

"So… not only do they have torpedoes that can crack planets, they _also_ have energy shields that can tank a kamikaze-run from an Ahead?" Twilight muttered, watching as the A-Laws completely forgot about them, focusing all their attention towards the _Ra Cailum_ , buying them time to land their MS and get them reloaded with GN Particles.

"Like I said… we are _not_ ready for that kind of tech," Jaden affirmed, sighing. "Well… at the very least, we can salvage a lot from those A-Laws MS's we downed… I could probably piece some of them together back into full units."

"Captain! The uh, _Ra Cailum?_ " Mckenzie spoke up. "It's, uhh… hailing us."

Jaden let out a sigh "Well… let's hope they're more friendly to us," he muttered, as he nodded as the operator put it through. "This is Captain Jaden Takeo, Celestial Being mothership _Morningstar_ , we receive you _Ra Cailum_."

" _This is Captain Pinkerton. Your ship's energy reserves are dropping and if I'm not mistaken, you're about to lose that field of yours._ "

'Oh, shit. They've got sensors that can pick that shit up?' Jaden thought.

" _I can provide additional protection._ "

"How?"

" _My shields can be extended around your ship. Move within 200 meters, ventral section._ "

Jaden muted the line and whistled. "That's impressive. Best we can do is a couple meters, and even then the field is pretty weak." He unmuted the line. "If you don't mind me asking, why offer us protection? I mean, not that we're ungrateful, but we _did_ intrude on your ship, and look in your database."

" _Captain, if I wanted to, I could've killed you, your entire away team and vaporized your ship within_ 15 seconds _of one another. Instead, I decided to see what you did. You looked at our history. You looked at the basics. You were curious and because you didn't try to pry, I let you stay on board. I would've introduced myself had the idiots not shown up._ "

"Ooookkkaaay," Jaden said, "Well… thank you for the offer and for not… killing us, Captain… we will maneuver up to your port side."

The ship went as fast as she could before a beam impacted the _Ra Cailum's_ clearly superior shields.

" _Shields are 87%. Keeping them extended will increase the strain, sir._ "

" _Thank you, Corpie. Takeshi, take the_ Firestorm _and kill that thing, please._ "

As the _Morningstar_ made for the _Ra Calium,_ the rear of the dreadnought's engineering hull… _shifted,_ and a small corvette- probably the size of a MS container, deployed out the back and extended her wings, before darting forward faster than any ship in the Earth Sphere could hope to be.

"Holy shit!" Natasha swore.

"Ooookay now, these guys are starting to scare me a bit," Hikaru admitted, "Superweapons, miniature starships… what can they _not_ do?!"

"We may find out in a little bit, Hikaru… I have a sneaking suspicion that the _Ra Calium's_ being slow for intimidation purposes _only._ " Jaden sighed, "Well… might as well get ready to… meet our visitors."

"Sir, another message from them."

" _Oh, Captain Takeo, correct? We noticed you take in a lot of salvage from the battle before we…_ intervened." Ron spoke, " _If you could hand over some of that salvage to us, it would be much appreciated - my chief engineer would like to take a look at those… Mobile Suits._ "

"I'll… see what I can do, Captain." Jaden informed.

" _That is all I ask, Pinkerton out._ "

The Comms went dead, and Jaden sighed as he stretched. "Well… guess I'm gonna have to piece together a few GN-XIII's…"

* * *

The battle didn't last very long, as the _Ra Cailum_ easily destroyed the remaining cruisers and mobile suits. Now however, it was time for the crew of the _Morningstar_ to meet their apparent saviors… and bringing gifts, as the CB Shuttle they flew forward was towing with it a trio of GNX-609T GN-XIII's, and a GNX-704T Ahead along with bits and pieces of damaged units and limbs. They asked for the parts… and Jaden wanted to at least attempt to make a good first impression on them.

They did kinda intrude on their ship.

As they approached, the shuttle lurched slightly, as their 'tractor beam' latched to them, bringing them in. "And they have tractor beams… they never cease to amaze…" Jaden muttered, sitting in the back seat of the shuttle as Hikaru and Nena sat in the pilot and co-pilot seats, and Pride sitting across from him.

"Yeah and… Nena?"

"Yeah, Hikaru?"

"Is… that man blue?"

"…What the fuuuuuck?"

Jaden took a peek for himself and… they were right, manning a console in the shuttle bay was… a blue, humanoid man. "Well… this day got more interesting." He muttered.

Gravity caught them before they got a safe signal to get out. The doors opened before two women, one human, the other… green… approached the shuttle. "Welcome back to the _Ra_ _Cailum_ , kids." The green woman looked at the shuttle, humming. "I'm Mitod Glarni, assistant chief engineer. The semi-bored lady here is my boss, Commander Sonja Henderson."

"You're… green."

"I'm an Orion." Pride suddenly felt lightheaded for a second, wanting to obey Mitod's every whim - but shook it off.

Hikaru, though… "She is _sexy_ …" The Kyrios Repair pilot whispered to Jaden, only for the Captain to roughly nudge the Gundam Meister.

"Head out of the gutter, ya Cyborg asshole… " He muttered.

"Oi!" Sonja bopped the Orion on the head. "None of that Orion pheromone crap. And tone it down; you're affecting me and you're not even pointing it in my direction." Mitod pouted before Sonja slapped her upside the head. Again. "You got the parts we requested?"

"Uh, yes, we do ma'am," Jaden nodded, gesturing to the mobile suits being brought in via the tractor beam. "I managed to put together three GN-XIII's and an Ahead unit using the parts we salvaged, and I brought along a few spare parts I had left over from the salvage if you need e'm. They all should be in working condition, if you have questions just ask me."

"Oh, I probably won't." Her eyes suddenly lit up. "I ENJOY taking things apart to figure out how they work before putting them back together."

The bay doors leading into the ship opened, allowing another woman, this time with blue skin, but with white hair unlike the bald one and… antennae on her head? To enter and approach. "Welcome on board. Commander Corpsa zh'Kilon, tactical officer. Captain Pinkerton and Commander Yamato want to speak with you. Please follow me."

Jaden nodded, sparing a glance at her… antenna. "Very well, Commander… Corpsa," He glanced at the others "Ya'll stay here, if they have questions, answer them. I'll be back soon."

"Be careful, Jaden." Nena said, with a bit of worry. He just smirked, shrugging as he walked away.

"Hey, its me!" He said confidently, before following the alien woman out of the hangar.

"That's what I'm afraid of."

* * *

The ship was FULL of people.

All wearing the same practical black and grey uniforms with colored undershirts, all of them… alien.

Well, one or two humans, but most of the people looked alien. Even a few 'humans' had eyes that didn't look normal and bald women was a big sign.

"Big ship."

"1080 meters long. She's the second ship to bear the name. And we JUST got out of a major retrofit, too."

Jaden let out a low whistle. "Bigger than anything the ESF has… or CB for that matter," he stated. "So… Alien, right?"

"Mostly." She answered. "40% of the crew is human: ship was built at earth, after all. I'm an Andorian. Born and raised on Andoria. It's a moon orbiting a gas giant. Fucking cold. We're actually one of the founders."

"Founders?"

"The founders of the Federation," she informed. "Vulcans are the brains and diplomats, Tellarites are politicians and traders, Andorians… we're warriors. We have an enemy to point a blade at, we shove it into their guts. But without humanity, the Federation wouldn't exist. They're the leaders, the glue that brought us together. It's what they… what you do."

"Hm… sounds kinda like the UN… if the UN actually _worked_ ," Jaden commented. "Or the ESF for that matter, but then again the ESF _could_ work if it weren't for the A-Laws."

"What's so bad about them, again?" Corpsa asked.

"Basically, they get a 'do whatever the hell they want' licence," Jaden answered. "They can order even the Admiralty and Generals of the ESF Armed Forces around to do their dirty work, and I've lost count on the human rights violations they've made in the past few years."

"Hmm. Best not mention that to the boss. He tends to get mad."

"Mad?"

"Genocidal. Never kills anyone that isn't prepared to fight. Only ones that should die are warriors and soldiers, after all. But he gets mad, he kills en masse."

And with the _Ra Cailum's_ power… fuck, he could wipe out civilizations. "Not to worry, though."

"Yeah… what powers this thing? Our energy readings are pretty much maxed out. We need to make new charts just to measure it."

"Matter/antimatter reaction, plasma-based power distribution. Nothing too fancy."

"…nothing too fancy, yeah sure…" Jaden muttered, while mentally filing that info for later… experiments.

"Here we are," He glanced up as Corpsa stopped at a door. "They're just inside." She tapped on a button on the side, followed soon was a shout of "Enter" as she opened the door.

Jaden was the first to step in, entering what looked like a conference room with a large desk in the middle, and to the side was a large seemingly glass window - though odds were it was transparent aluminum like ships he knows. On the other side was a series of golden-colored models of ships which all shared the same basic disk-design of the _Ra Cailum_ , and sitting near the end of the table were two human individuals.

"Welcome aboard." The man at the end of the table gestured to a chair. Jaden walked to one, staring at the models.

"NCC-1701."

"Huh?"

"With the sole exception of the NX-01 at your left, all of those ships were NCC-1701. _Enterprise_. The greatest ship in Federation history. The Federation wouldn't exist without the NX-01. But you know all about Archer's actions in the founding of one of the great powers of the Milky Way. You did read through the 2150s and 60s rather quickly."

"Uh… yes, I did," Jaden admitted, before scratching his head sheepishly "Uhh… sorry for uh… intruding earlier… we tried hailing you, but no response so… yeah… "

"There was a reason for that," Ron informed. "I WAS tempted to space you, but I decided to see what you did. You restrained yourself. I was going to fake a reactor breach and hide the ship in ways you've never expect, but then they showed up."

"What the hell are you people?" Jaden finally asked. "Guns that put ours to shame, shields that block everything?"

"We're Starfleet. Soldiers, diplomats, engineers, explorers, doctors and more. We're the sword and shield of the Federation. Ex astris, scientia."

"I pieced some of that together," Jaden sighed, "So… alternate universes, huh? Stephen Hawking 1, Ken Ham and everyone else, Zero."

Ron drank from a mug full of tea. "Want any? Orange pekoe."

"No thanks."

"Well, then, what do you want to drink?"

Jaden thought about it for a second. "Uh, do they have Root Beer in the alternate universe 25th Century?" He asked sheepishly.

Ron got up, stepping up to a slot in the wall before pressing a few buttons. "A&W brand root beer, chilled to 3 degrees." A swirl of light in the slot materialized a mug of what looked like root beer. In a glass mug.

He pulled it out and gave it to Jaden. "Here you go."

Jaden's jaw was agape, as he looked at the mug of root beer which appeared out of thin air. "I… ga… w-what the hell?!"

"Replicators," Takeshi explained, getting a root beer, himself. "They have a stockpile of stored matter, and then can convert that matter to whatever you want, and deposit it at the receptacle for you."

Jaden hesitantly accepted the mug, glancing back at it and the Captain, who took a drink out of his own… gulping, he took a sip from the drink and… it tasted like root beer. "…holy fuck…"

"Andorian ale." Another cup materialized, Ron handing it to Jaden. "Relax. Synthohol. Alcohol that gives you the pleasant buzz, but none of the nasty side-effects. I prefer the real stuff, but synthohol heightens your appreciation of the real stuff."

"I uhh…" Jaden began, looking at the Synthohol more… _hesitantly_. "I uhh… don't… drink, uh… "

"You look of legal age,"

"Bad past… _experiences_ …"

Ron shrugged, then downed the glass. "Not a problem. Still, good thing you showed restraint when you boarded: most of my crew were knocked out by our trip here. SCE is going to get SHOT for this. Wormholes are never a good idea. Combining them with FTL drives is worse."

FTL. Faster than light. Oh, THAT explained the weird shape of the _Ra Cailum_. The nacelles, the saucer, everything: it was for FTL travel.

"Okay, so…" Jaden began. "What do you plan to do… now?"

"What do you mean?" Takeshi asked.

"I mean… once you're done with those mobile suits, are you just going to leave?" Jaden asked, "Your historical docs mentioned something about a prime directive which prevents you from interfering with the affairs of non-warp capable nations… and so far the only ones who've seen you are the A-Laws ships which are now all dead, and us, so…"

"You want us to leave?"

"…partly yes, partly no." He admitted, "On one hand, I don't like the risk of your tech falling into the A-Laws hands… if you can make shit appear out of thin air, crack planets, and have indestructible shields, plus I wouldn't want to drag anyone into this fight if I could avoid it… but on the other hand… we're in a bit of a tight squeeze."

"How tight?"

"A-Laws and the ESF have all GN-Drive equipped mobile suits, which are immediately superior to anything that the resistance force, Katharon, could ever hope to get on the black market like Tierens, Enacts, Flags, and such." He elaborated, "Combine that they've been curve-stomping resistance and killing anyone who so much as thinks about rising up against them, and the fact that Celestial Being can only be at so many places at once? I'd take all the help we can get but… like I said, it's… complicated… "

"The Prime Directive only protected them until the _millisecond_ they chose to fire on my ship." Ron informed. "The Directive is a guideline, a philosophy. A CORRECT one that keeps us from playing god. But philosophy goes out the window when people are in danger. They _fired_ on _my ship_. They _endangered my crew_. **_They declared war on us_**."

Jaden wasn't sure whether to shake his hand or back away in fear. "So no. A-Laws wants to fuck with us? They die. The only thing I need is information. Where do I go to punch them in the dick? How do I make them bleed? The only thing I want in exchange for this is historical information. The boys back home will drool over a complete alternate historical almanac."

Takeshi chuckled. "That's Ronald Pinkerton for you," he remarked. "The walking Darwin Award Generator, because any idiot who tries to kill him removes themselves from the gene pool because he kills **_them_**."

"Ooookay then," Jaden stated, not sure if he should be relieved or concerned. "Well… I suppose the first step might be for us to get into contact with the rest of Celestial Being, at Krung Thep… try and get a line with the A-Team on the _Ptolemy_ , then to contact Katharon… but first off, we need to move your ship somewhere people can't find it. You have defenses but… don't know how you'd fare if they sent a whole fleet after ya."

"If they're all the same as those corvettes, they'd have to send _quite_ a few. And you've seen little of my ship's real power."

"Little? You CORED a _Baikal_ like it was nothing."

"True. We've got a few tricks that you haven't seen though. Cassie?"

" _Yes, sir_?"

"Now you see us—"

The lights dimmed for a second.

"Now you don't."

" _Jaden, what's going on?! The_ Ra Cailum _just disappeared! We're firing laser links into the last known location, but they're passing right through_!"

Jaden's jaw went agape once more "…you can turn invisible…" he muttered, "And even _lasers_ can't hit you… not even _our_ optical camo can fucking do that!"

"Our cloaking technology's more advanced. And phase shifting doesn't hurt."

"Phase—PHASE SHIFT? We're intangible?!"

"Tell them to fire. Nothing can touch us when we're cloaked. Comes in handy."

Hiding inside asteroids, inside stars…

Handy? This was a doomsday weapon in and of itself.

"Uh… Fuck."

"You ain't seen nothing yet."

* * *

"Where'd it go?!" Twilight shouted. "Nothing that big can disappear and not leave an optical distortion, especially when we're less than 200 meters away!"

"Ma'am, I am scanning, re-scanning, and triple-scanning!" Mckenzy shouted, "There is _NOTHING. FUCKING. THERE!_ It's like it dropped off the face of the fucking earth!"

Even with station-keeping thrusters, the _Ra Cailum_ was moving. Optical camo still produced a faint distortion when moving: only on planetary surfaces was it perfect.

"Jaden, do you read?"

" _…I hear you. The_ Ra Cailum _'s letting me use their comms. They're… kinda phase shifted._ "

"Phase shifted? Are you telling me you're in another dimension or something?"

" _More or less. These guys make US look primitive. They've got a power drive that makes all six of our GN drives in Trans-Am look pathetic._ "

"…who the fuck ARE these people?!"

" _Well… all I know is that the A-Laws done fucked up,_ " He informed. " _Since they attacked them, their prime directive gives them authority to go to war against them… they've agreed to tow us over to Krung Thep so we can contact_ Ptolemy _and Katharon._ "

"Could you tell them to… decloak?"

" _Hang on._ " The _Ra Cailum_ shimmered back into existence, looking like she never disappeared.

"That is the most intimidating thing I've ever seen."

" _You and me both! They've even got the holy grail of sci-fi tech on board._ "

"Holy grail?"

" _Faster than light drives. That's why the ship looks so fucking WEIRD: for their 'warp drive'. I'm not sure how it works. But I want it - but we're gonna have to build one ourselves… call up Ian and Linda once we get close, and get the engineering teams ready! We're gonna be putting together some all-nighters!_ "

"Oh, boy."

The superdreadnought began moving, going over their dorsal section before locking some kind of beam onto their hull. "What the hell is that?!"

" _It's a tractor beam. They're going to tow us._ "

"We can do it ourselves, you know!"

" _Uh, we barely break .1 lightspeed. According to these guys, they go .25 at half impulse. Full, half lightspeed. That's faster then we can push at Trans-Am!_ "

Twilight leaned back and whistled. "Anything _else_ they can do?"

" _Well, they have matter/energy converters, tractor beams, atmospheric retention shields, bioneural systems, oh, and did I mention that there's fucking ALIENS on board?"_

"WHAT?"

 _"Yeah, this humanity met aliens in the_ twenty-first century _and came out like THIS!"_ He shouted, " _Though, weird part is that most of these aliens look… well… pretty damn human. Some elf-looking ones called Vulcans who are harder to talk to than an Innovade - no offense Twilight._ "

"None taken."

" _Also some blue-skinned white haired warrior race with antennae on their foreheads… though one of them, Corpsa says to_ not _stare at them, they don't like it… also some green skinned women who Hikaru is trying to get very…_ friendly _with… and that's just scratching the surface here!_ "

"…hot alien women?" Adam asked, disbelievingly.

" _Yes, Adam. Hot alien women._ "

"…permission to go on shoreleave aboard the _Ra Cailum_ , sir?"

" _Beat the A-Laws first,_ then _ask the Captain,_ " Jaden informed. " _Might not be a bad idea… heard they have something called a Holodeck…. Interested in seeing what_ that _is._ "

* * *

"We have access to their MS technology, but I'm more interested in how we got here." Ron and Takeshi walked through the halls of their ship before they reached main engineering. "SONJA! How the fuck did you screw up this time?!"

"I didn't! According to the new girl, the special dilithium is fine, the warp field we used is lined up with Kosinski's bullshit and the wormhole effect happened as planned!"

Ron paused. "New girl?"

The girl in question perked her head up. "Yes, sir! Fresh from the Academy! Ensign Mari Illustrious Makinami, at your service!"

"…That is the most fucked up name I've ever heard."

"I've been told that before, but yes!" She announced. "I double-checked, and quadruple checked it! Dilithium was where it's suppose to be, warp fields set up, and everything happened as it was supposed to!"

"Then what the fuck happened?"

Mari pulled up an image via holographics. "The effect seems to have sent us DEEP into subspace. As in way deep, beyond the Solanae layer deep."

"Deep enough to punch into another universe."

"Which brings up the bad news. We're not getting home any time soon. We punched our way into another quantum reality that looks NOTHING like ours." Ron knew how it worked: universes that had minor differences had very similar quantum signatures and were easy to travel back and forth between.

Once it went from .1 to 1, though, it turned from ant moving a rock hard to ant moving a planetary body hard.

"Fuck…"

"Yeah, its gonna be a while before we make it home," Sonja said, "Can I get it to work? Yes, but when we use that thing, we have no idea what kind of universe we're gonna be dropping into."

"Fuckery. Well, we're living up to the motto."

"To explore strange new worlds? Seek out new life and new civilizations?"

"To boldly fuck up what no one's fucked up before? HELL YES. We don't want to be on this little odyssey, but we are. So let's make the best of it."

"Agreed," Takeshi replied. "Starting with those _beautiful_ works of combat art known as Mobile Suits. Sonja, what all do you know about them so far?"

"Pieces of shit. Their armor's made of synthesized carbon. That would be useless against anything but 22nd Century plasma weapons, and even THEN that's iffy. Still, they're good for short range combat."

"They're not warp capable?"

"Nope. Too small and their profiles make turbulence. They'd blow themselves up going into warp speed."

"Meaning Peregrines are still the best long range support we have. Work on it."

"Hm, I'll get to work on it," She said "First I'm gonna try and mess with their power plants… what did he call them, GN Drives? Ain't seen anything like it before…" she smirked slightly "Next few days are gonna be _fuuun_."

"Don't blow up my ship."

"Wouldn't dream of it!"

Ron left main engineering, tapping on his sword—out of habit more than anything. "Clear Takeo for class-4 access of the ship. If he enters anywhere related to the computer cores and the operations of the ship, I want him watched. The last thing I need is for the _Ra Cailum_ to end up like the _Enterprise_."

"Right," Takeshi replied. "What are we going to do about space in the shuttlebays and cargo bays, though? Not only do we have a full load of shuttles and fighters, but we also have those three ships stored in component form."

Ron paused. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you've been wanting your own ship for a while now, right?"

Take raised an eyebrow. "Yeah…"

Ron adopted that accursed grin. "What if I were to tell you one of those ships was a _Mercury-_ class high maneuverability escort?"

Takeshi's eyes bugged out. "Those things that are basically oversized fighters on crack?!" he asked in a bit of excited shock.

"The same. We were going to transport it to Starbase 24 after the flight, but we need the room."

Takeshi began drooling. The upgraded _Firestorm_ was EVIL. But a _Mercury_?

A _Mercury_ was one of the fastest and most maneuverable starships in service. With more firepower than even a _Sao Paulo_ -class Tactical Escort; the successor to the famed _Defiant_ -class.

"I'lltakeitbutthecurrent _Firestorm_ isgoingtoneedanewname," he got out in an excited rush.

"The only ship that broke the theme was the _Firestorm_. _Khepri_ will do."

"The scarab beetle god?" Takeshi asked incredulously.

"The one that pushes around a flaming ball of shit!"

Takeshi tried to hold it in, but couldn't stop himself from laughing uproariously.

* * *

"What the hell is that?" Twilight blinked as they heard laughing coming from nowhere.

"I have no idea what the hell is going on."

* * *

Ribbons Almark glanced up. "Did you hear that?"

One of the Innovators nodded. "Sounded like someone just got their lifelong dream fulfilled."

Ribbons uncharacteristically shivered. "Why do I feel like someone walked over my grave?"

* * *

Ron cackled. Now he would get to do what he did best.

And without that ASSHOLE Jellico getting in the way.

"Let's get to work, Takeshi."

* * *

 **Ron the true Fan: Oh, Ribby. You're screwed no matter what.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Be prepared to get dunked on, you egotistical megalomaniac.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: And with one of the most skilled pilots in Starfleet at the helm (and in command) of an oversized fighter on crack. Oh, this is going to be _fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn…_**

 **117Jorn: And soon, Starfleet will have their _own_ surplus of mobile suits with GN Drives. I think I hear the 'RAPE' song playing… **

**Ron the True Fan: (Rape sung to the Cancan) YES!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Earth orbit, near Lagrange point 4**

 **2312 AD - USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

"So… what kind of ship is this?" Jaden asked, as he was taken on a tour through the ship, passing through the commons area. "I was told it's a dreadnought, but… the interior feels kinda.. Civilian-ish… "

"In times of war, it's a superdreadnought/command ship." Corpsa informed, leading him across the ship. "In times of peace… her role is that of explorer, builder and transport. She can do anything."

"Anything?"

"Yup. we usually build starbases, but we've gone on missions to relieve suffering on planets plagued by famine, combated pirates, resolved diplomatic problems… In short, if there's a mission, the _Ra Cailum_ can do it. She's a multirole command cruiser."

Jaden let out a low whistle "Damn… wish the _Morningstar_ could be like this… " he muttered, "Exploring the galaxy, going where no one's ever been before… "

"More or less the motto of Starfleet." The two entered a massive chamber, at the center of which was a massive tube, lit up bottom and top as lights met in a massive chamber in the center. "Welcome to main engineering."

"What the fuck is THAT?"

"The warp core. Matter is fired in through the top, antimatter the bottom. They collide in the center, reacting with a dilithium crystal to enhance and stabilize the reaction. What you're seeing is the power of a star."

A star in the center of a starship. "Well… shit," Jaden muttered, scratching the back of his head. "I've… got my work cut out for me then… "

"I'd be more worried about the work Sonja's doing on the GN Tau drives. And all the readings we took on your machine's GN drive."

Jaden looked at Sonja, who rounded the warp core holding a PADD full of specs on the GNXIII. "Readings?"

"Our sensors are a fuckton more advanced than yours. Took a bit of work to filter out the gravimetric distortions your drives put out, but I think I can reproduce the drive your machine uses. I just don't want to blow up the ship doing it."

Jaden hummed as he looked at Sonja's PADD. "Huh… color me impressed," He muttered, "Your sensors must not operate like E-Sensors; a standard GN Drive creates an electromagnetic radar-disruption stealth measure."

"So I've seen," Sonja confirmed. "So just tell me this: what can you use these particles for so far?"

"Let's see… aside from that, they can generate physical barriers, act as GN Vernier propellant, a particle coating that enhances both the sharpness/cutting ability of physical blades and the durability of armor, the potential to disrupt electronic equipment, as opposed to just interfering with EMW communication such as radio waves, manipulation of weight - specifically, the pull of gravity on mass - allowing GN Particles to either increase or decrease the weight of an object, and even more Quantum effects," he listed off.

"Doesn't explain why you don't have artificial gravity." Sonja said.

"We kinda lack the control for that," Jaden informed. "Our computers are advanced, but they don't have the fine control that yours seem to have. And the raw power."

"They certainly do." Jaden's attention was caught by another woman who looked like she was born in Greece. "Captain Takeo. I would suggest not trying to memorize any of the technical readouts: warp drive is something you have to create on your own. Try to, I'll simply change them."

Jaden raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"Easy to do for an AI. Commander Cassandra Ptolemy, operations officer and former virtual intelligence of the USS _Ra_ _Cailum_. This isn't the first time we've interacted: we actually had a few handshakes during your first boarding action."

"Ah, that explains how we got in so easily," Jaden said. "But still… wow, an AI with its own body… "

"Hologram, actually," Cassie corrected, gesturing to a small pin on her uniform. "Mobile emitter allows me to walk around the ship."

"Huh… another thing for me to work on…" he muttered, before shaking his head. "Don't worry ma'am, I got the basic gist of the warp drive - matter in one way, antimatter in another, and something like dilithium in the middle to stabilize."

"It's far more complicated than that."

"I'll work on the more finer details when I actually try and _build_ one."

Sonja glanced at Jaden for a moment… smirking slightly. "So… answer me this, Captain," she spoke up, grabbing his attention. "The GN Drives we got from you, they look… incomplete. Why's that?"

"Because they are GN Tau Drives," Jaden stated. "Unlike the GN Drive of the original five Gundams and my machine, the GN Drives used by the ESF and the rest of my team lack the topological Defect blanket, which allows GN Drives to have infinite particle distribution. Without it, GN Tau drives are incapable of semi-perpetual energy generation. It also produced a toxic form of the particles with high concentrations of it in beam weapons which can cause cellular damage to living tissue. Only a handful of Celestial Being engineers can build a TD Blanket including myself, hence why we're fortunate enough that the A-Laws haven't gotten their hands on a true GN Drive…. That and it's pretty difficult to get to and from Jupiter - it's the only place with the correct atmospheric conditions to _make_ the TD Blanket."

"Not a problem for us."

"Yeah, FTL drives."

"All hands, stand by for cloak: A-Laws patrol detected."

"Fun times!"

* * *

The knife-like _Baikals_ were gliding past, not knowing the _Morningstar_ was there, same with the _Ra Cailum_.

"This… is freaky." Twilight commented.

"No shit; if that ship wasn't here, we'd be fighting them now." Nena retorted. They were not used to being super-stealthy. At least not since the _Morningstar's_ predecessor _Ptolemy_ was destroyed.

"Hey, if anything this is _good_ ," Natasha said, leaning back in her console. "We get a shortcut back home, and the A-Laws are none the wiser! Win win!"

"Yeah, but I heard… stories. Is it true that thing's got the firepower to take out the entire Earth Sphere? CB, A-Laws, whoever?"

"Probably." Twilight said. "Their captain's probably got a lot of restraint, though."

The _Ra Cailum_ was still something of a mystery. Even after Jaden sent back the basics, they knew almost nothing about her.

Like the ultimate question: was humanity finally at peace? Were there no more wars in their universe? Jaden implied there could, but didn't elaborate further as he said he was 'working with someone'.

"Thankfully, from what he says, they don't start fights." Mckenzie said, "But they sure as hell will finish them…"

"Wonder what the main team's going to think?"

"Speaking of which, they're at Earth. They managed to rescue Allelujah Haptism."

There was a brief silence.

"I am NOT giving back the Kyrios!" Hikaru shouted.

"Don't worry." Twilight replied, grinning at the pilot's antics. "They gave him a new suit. The GN-007 Arios Gundam, if I'm not mistaken."

"Still not giving my Gundam back."

"You don't need to. And with that thing…" Twilight looked at the _Ra Cailum's_ massive saucer section. "We don't have to."

* * *

 **CBS-74 _Ptolemaios_ II**

* * *

"USS _Ra Cailum_. _Odyssey_ -Class superdreadnought."

The main team looked at the footage. It was a massive kilometer long ship, equipped with defensive shields beyond the GN field and weapons that made Trans-Am look _mild_.

Planet-busting torpedoes, sustained beam weapons and a power source rivalling a sun.

"Just what the hell did Takeo find…" Tieria muttered, "Are we sure this is accurate?"

"He doesn't really have a reason to lie about something like this," Ian Vashti informed. "Plus there's a report the A-Laws sent out about three of their ships going 'missing', so it does tie into what he says… "

"So… what do we do?" The new Lockon Stratos asked.

"Well, since I'm leaving to check up on what me and Linda's been working at Krung Thep, I'll make sure what he's saying is genuine," Ian said. "I'll radio back and… well, we'll figure something out from then."

"What does this mean for us, though?" Sumeragi looked at the footage of the _Ra Cailum_ coring a _Baikal_ , something that the even Seravee Gundam had problems doing without Trans-Am. "What do we know about this United Federation of Planets?" Miliena typed on the holographic keyboard, pulling up the data Jaden sent over.

"Founded in 2161 as a multi-species alliance, mostly peaceful… not to fond of pirates. In short, friendly."

"Look, I hate to point this out, but CB's past might bite us in the ass, here." Lockon gestured to the all-powerful starship. "These guys fought A-Laws on unequal terms and WON. That ship was mostly alone, no Mobile Suits besides ours and they brushed everything off. What happens when A-Laws is gone?"

"From the report, their Prime Directive prevents them from interfering unless attacked," Sumeragi said, "A-Laws attacked them, so they struck back. The key right now… " She took a swig out of her flask. "…is to make sure we all play nice, and don't piss them off."

Setsuna looked at the massive ship on the screens. " _Ra Cailum._ What has that ship seen to need the weapons it carries?"

* * *

 **CBS-71 _Morningstar_**

* * *

A shower of light appeared on the bridge of the CB carrier, placing Jaden behind the command chair. "WHAT THE FUCK?!" Twilight shouted.

"I… I thought that transporter thing was a JOKE! I didn't think it would work!"

Jaden spun around, as he double-checked himself, patting down his body. "Legs, arms, head on straight…" He muttered, before he sighed "Good… geez they could've warned me…"

"So… what's happening, Cap?" Twilight asked.

"Okay, well… after chatting with the Captain, while he takes our ship to Krung Thep, me and the rest of the team will go planet-side with his away team to meet up with the A-Team," Jaden explained. "That way we can start getting to work against A-Laws… have Hikaru, Nena and Pride suit up, we'll be heading out shortly."

"Will they be… beaming you all down?"

"No, they're using their shuttles - but they will beam down our mobile suits since their shuttles ain't big enough to carry them." He answered, as he headed out to leave. "We'll be leaving within the hour."

Twilight suddenly had nightmarish thoughts. They could beam one of those torpedoes on board and they wouldn't know about it until the ship exploded.

"I… Put the Haros on ship-wide search, please."

* * *

"We'll take the _Ra-Horakhty_ down, ferry the pilots down to this resistance base. In short, play nice, don't make them feel intimidated."

"You're the most intimidating bastard on this ship, Ron." Luna commented dryly.

The captain smiled at his sister. "Yes, but I have to remind myself of this shit. I'm not a diplomat."

Takeshi chuckled. "Yeah, your idea of diplomacy is 'shoot both sides just to shut them up'."

"Saves me the headaches!"

* * *

 **Kathron Base- Middle East**

* * *

"Can someone get me a rifle?!"

"Hurry up on that Flag!"

"Recharge our best suits first. We need to be able to keep up with the GN Drives."

Kathron resistance engineers have seen some shit in their 'careers.' Everything from a man dying from GN poisoning, a melting Tieren, etc.

But when four Gundams suddenly appeared out of nowhere… well, it took the cake.

"What the fuck?!" An engineer, who had been standing right neck to where the suits appeared. Shouted. "Since when could Celestial Being teleport shit?!"

Klaus Grad wasn't sure these people were Celestial Being. Still, fair point had to be raised.

If CB had allies like these, Falling Angels wouldn't've happened the way it did. "Well?"

"The Gundams we saw at the prison are on their way and the lookouts have picked up a shuttle of some kind on approach. It's small, fast and coming right at us."

"Miss Bakhtiar!" Shirin and Klaus glanced back as a Lieutenant approached them. "They just sent us a message, Celestial Being will be here soon… along with some guys calling themselves Starfleet."

"The hell is Starfleet?" Klaus demanded.

"Likely whoever just teleported those Gundams in here…" Shirin muttered, before she sighed. "Well then… let's get ready to welcome them in, then! Move it people! And no one touch those Gundams!"

Like they would. Damn things were probably booby trapped.

* * *

"You sure they won't touch the Gundams, Captain?"

"For fuck's sake, girl, call me Ron. And no, they won't touch them. They just magically appeared out of nowhere."

Nena sighed, trying to relax. "I never keep Drei out of my sight for long. I'm… just worried."

"Trust me, I know how you feel," Ron said. "The Romulans once captured this shuttle. I was NOT happy. At the end of the day, though, I got it back. Painted green."

Jaden blinked. "Green?"

"Green with the blood of the Romulan assholes that tried to keep it from me. Relax, anyone touches those machines, I'll be the first to know. And the first one to inflict pain."

Jaden wasn't sure to be relieved or horrified.

"Jaden, right?"

The CB engineer looked at Takeshi, who was sitting in front of him. "Yeah?"

"You said you designed some of these Gundams, right?"

Jaden shrugged, "Yeah, I helped with the modifications of the old 2nd Gen Gundam's, did my work on the 3rd and 3.5th Gen Machines as well," He confirmed, "Also did my own custom work to the old first gen 0 Gundam into the Mark II, as well as fix up the GN Cannon II, Nena's Drei, and the Kyrios Repair… why?"

Takeshi smiled giggily. "I want one."

"You… want a Gundam?"

"He's been going crazy about the damn things since we first saw your machines in combat." Ron shouted over his shoulder. "Hang on, picking up four contacts. IFF seems to match that of Celestial Being. Friends of yours?"

Jaden got up and walked to the cockpit, looking at the signatures. While fuzzy, they matched Cherubium, 00, Arios and Seravee. "They're ours: the main team. …The fact you can see through all those GN particles is not helping matters."

"It's hard, but adaptive sensors help. I think Takeshi wants you to design him a Mobile suit. And I can actually see them as useful anti-piracy weapons back home." Ron shook his head, smiling. "He's also on the equivalent of a sugar high because I promised him a _Mercury-_ class pilot escort."

"Aaaand that is?"

"You saw how fast the auxiliary escort was?"

Jaden nodded.

"Faster, more agile, bigger guns."

Jaden didn't want to think about something more nasty than the _Firestorm_.

"Takeshi's renaming the Merc _Firestorm_ while our _Aquarius_ gets the name _Khepri_."

"That's… ancient Egyptian."

"Scarab god, aspect of Ra, pushed the sun like a dung beetle."

Jaden processed that. "Wait… you're telling me—"

"Pushing a flaming ball of shit! AHAHAHAHAHA!"

Takeshi sighed. "Ignore him, he has an… odd sense of humor," he said. "But yes, I want a Gundam."

"Well, I'll think of something. I'll need to know how your fighting style is—"

"Work on it later. We're here."

* * *

Shirin Bakhtiar watched as the hangar doors opened to admit a very boxy looking craft.

"That." One of the novice engineers stated. "Is _very_ weird."

The shuttle spun around, in place, moving very little air before settling down. The Gundams kept a distance from it, allowing the Katharon people to examine the shuttle. '94517-A, USS _Ra Cailum_ 01' was written in blocky lettering while on the prow, in two places was a set of lettering. One was unknown, the other read _Ra-Horakhty_.

A blond man dressed in a black uniform, with gray shoulders and red trimming stepped out of a side hatch, hefting a rifle of some kind. Another officer followed, a man with brown hair and a moustache, dressed in similar colors, but in a different arrangement, and finally out the hatch followed a brown-haired man in CB uniform.

The blond man gazed across the hangar at the sorry state of the Kathron fighters, then shook his head. "Alright listen up!" He called out. "Let me make myself _very_ clear! THIS!" He hefted the rifle. "Is my boomstick! Any of you touch this shuttle, you get to meet my boomstick! That is all!"

"Like that toy ray gun can do anything." A pilot called out. The man with the rifle pointed it at a toolbox before firing a orange bolt at the steel, partially melting it.

"Care to rephrase that, you primitive screwhead?"

The man opened his mouth, thought the better of it and closed it. "…Shutting up."

Jaden looked at Ron. "Evil Dead?"

"That series was AWESOME. Remake was weak, but the first three movies were amazing."

Takeshi chuckled. "Just don't traumatize them _too_ badly, Ron," He said. "They don't have telepathic psychiatrists around here, which is what's needed to fix the people you _really_ break. I mean, the **_last_** guy you traumatized, it took a full team of Betazoids _and_ Vulcans to put his mind back together."

"No promises." Ron's smile meant that he wasn't going to bother trying. "So, who's the guy in charge?"

Klaus reluctantly stepped forward. "I… I am. You are?"

"Captain Ronald Pinkerton, United Federation of Planets starship _Ra Cailum_. Asshole Supreme and general genocidal maniac."

"Also a walking Darwin Award Generator due to what happens to people who try to kill him," Takeshi added. "I'm Commander Takeshi Yamato, XO of the _Ra Cailum_ , and the guy who generally tries to keep him from going _too_ overboard. It doesn't always work."

"Federation of Planets?"

"Alternate universe. Welcome to hell. Perhaps we should talk in private."

"Yeah…"

"Also, wasn't joking." He turned to Jaden. "I painted that shuttle with the blood of the assholes that touched that thing LAST time."

"Uh…"

"He's _not_ joking," Takeshi informed. "It took two days to clean it off. It's his favorite shuttle."

"Ohhh… kay, then…" Klaus replied. "Umm… this way, please… Shirin? You want to join in, or stay here to greet Celestial Being?"

The woman nodded. "I'll handle them."

* * *

Setsuna looked at the shuttle. Small, blocky, unremarkable. But it wouldn't betray its' secrets so easily.

"I have… never seen a craft like that before," remarked his passenger, a woman with black hair and eyes.

"It's a shuttle belonging to the _Ra Cailum_."

The captain then entered view, holding some kind of rifle. Setsuna was ready for a fight, but the almost casual method he held it meant that it wasn't going to be actually used. But if it were anything like the weapons used by the _Ra Cailum_ , there was little he could do to stop the beam.

But _why_ did he need it? Was it self-defense? Or something else?

Setsuna opened the cockpit. "Princess."

Princess Marina Ismail nodded in thanks to Setsuna, before she made her way out of the cockpit.

The pilots left their machines, joined by the Princess before the captain looked their way. "Oh, lovely. The morons have arrived."

The current Lockon raised his eyebrow, more questioning than irritated, compared to the other Meisters. "And why is that?"

"Oh, thinking you can change human nature." Ron said. "It took first contact with an alien race and 600 million deaths thanks to a world war to make us get our acts together, _child_. And it still took us a century to get our heads screwed on right."

Setsuna blinked, a little (which was A LOT in his case) surprise evident on his face. "You've eliminated war?"

"HELL no!" Ron yelled. "Humanity unified, and wars between ourselves are unseen, but then you get OTHER races!" They all blinked at that. "Getting rid of war is impossible as long as there are two beings with differing opinions."

"Surely conflict could be avoided if people were willing to discuss their differences," Marina spoke up. "There isn't a need for fighti-"

A rueful chuckle drew their attention over to Takeshi, who stood near the entrance to the hangar. "Oh, goodie, we have a total pacifist with us, too," He remarked sarcastically. "The worst kind of _bakas_ in existence."

"What? But—"

"Peace is our goal, but we're not stupid enough to see that it's the only option. We evolved from predators. Conflict is never going away. Si vis pacem, para bellum, dumbass."

Marina blinked, taken aback before translating the phrase.

If you wish for peace, prepare for war.

"He's kinda got a point, princess." Jaden spoke up, drawing attention to him. "I've been looking through their historical files, and… well, it's hard to have peace when you've got one neighbor stellar empire who is Xenophobic as all hell, and another one consisting of a full-fledged warrior race who _love_ war, not to mention all these other crazy alien nations I've read up about… we could all learn a few things from these guys."

Suddenly, there was a tremendous crash from above, and the E-Carbon sword that the Anf shadowing them was holding broke from its mount and fell right towards Marina. With reflexes that an Innovade would envy, Ron dashed forward, shouldering her out of the way, reached up, and _caught_ the half-a-ton blade.

Ron groaned and threw the melee weapon to the side.

"THAT is going to hurt tomorrow." He grabbed his right hand before shoving his arm up, groaning. "Or now. FUCKING _OW_."

"Dislocated your shoulder there, Ron?" Takeshi asked amusedly.

"YOU try doing that!"

"Umm… no thanks," Takeshi replied. "You were always stronger than me, Ron, and that was _before_ … _that_ happened."

That was when they noticed everyone staring. Jaden especially. "What the fuck are you? Nothing can do that. Nothing… human can do that."

Ron smacked his shoulder once more.

"I'm complicated. GAH, whoever mounted that needs to get shot!"

Jaden shrugged, but filed the topic for later. "Want me to relocate that shoulder? I know that hurts."

"Please do."

Jaden set himself and pulled his arm, hearing a slight pop as Ron gritted his teeth in pain. "FUCK. That's the third time that's happened in the last 18 months. One would think they would be easier to pop back into place!"

"What the fuck are you? Humans can't do that! Even Innovades—"

"You want to talk about it, do it in private." Ron interrupted, leaving no room for questions.

Suddenly Ron perked up. "And besides, you got bigger problems. There is an A-LAWS MS team on it's way here."

Jaden swore and called out an alert. "How the fuck do you know that?"

"The same way I was able to do THAT." He nodded at the fallen sword. "But that's for later. Takeshi, take the shuttle and assist the Gundams. I'll stay on the ground and see if our rifles can do anything against a MS."

The room was filled with noise as engines, both solar and GN, powered up, ready for battle.

Jaden began to head to his own MS, however a thought occurred to him, before smirking as he glanced at Takeshi as he was about to enter the shuttlecraft. "Hey! Takeshi, right?" He shouted, grabbing his attention. "How would you like to Demo-pilot a mobile suit?"

"I'd love to! Unfortunately, these guys don't have anything that would have a chance in hell against those GNX-IIIs and you're out of machines."

"Actually… we have _one_ spare on the _Morningstar_ , kinda of a prototype we were considering giving to Katharon." Jaden said, "Pretty sure your big ship could beam it down… "

Takeshi looked at Ron. "Can you fly the _Ra-Horakhty_ , Ron?!"

"The assholes might drop those automated attack drones, so no. Tell Sonja or Corpsa to get down here and get on it!"

Takeshi grinned as he activated the commbadge. "Sonja… I need a small favor."

* * *

 **117Jorn: Ohohohoh… bad things are coming to some idiots…**

 **HA Anderson: Well, you know what time it is!**

 **Takeshi Yamato: That we do, Anderson… that we do. (Word RAPE appears in big white letters)**

 **Ron the True Fan: (Plays Donkey Kong (1981) theme to the word RAPE) A-Laws, meet Starfleet. And your doom. I like Doom.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: I do too. If there's anyone who emulates the Doom Marine, it's Ron.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Groovy.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Earth, Rub' al Khali region**

 **2312 AD**

* * *

Soma Peries was not foreseeing any real resistance from Katharon. The Gundams, yes, but that was a given.

Still, there were rumors of some new faction with a superdreadnought that took out three of their ships and was undamaged.

' _Ludicrous. Nothing that powerful exists._ '

" _We have confirmation on Celestial Being's presence!_ " One of the pilots announced. " _Four Gundams are… wait… the shit?!_ "

Soma looked, and blinked. Yes, there were the original four Gundams they had encountered before… but there were even _more_ now! Two were of models she had never seen, another one looked like an upgraded version of the Drei, and… was that the same Kyrios the HRL captured after Fallen Angel? But even stranger was what looked like a small craft was rising with them.

It was blocky, had two nacelles on each side and looked, well, pathetic. That thing would be easy to shoot down.

Then two orange beams impacted a GNX-III and cored it. Easily.

 _"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!"_

"Calm down! Shoot that thing down!" Soma locked onto the shuttle as it flew towards them, firing as soon as she got a clear shot.

But the bolt didn't impact the shuttle. It hit some kind of… shielding. The Mobile Armor fired towards her - but her supersoldier reflexes saved her, dodging out of the way - though not without losing her beam rifle to protect the cockpit.

 _"Son of a bitch! The rumors are true!"_

"Don't panic! It's only one craft!" Soma called out, trying to keep the squadron together.

Another GNX-III exploded.

 _"Tell that to that overpowered thing!"_

* * *

"Well, they live up to their reputation."

The _Ra-horakhty_ was not as agile as a Mobile Suit, but it was faster and _much_ more durable. Setsuna was slightly impressed.

Didn't mean he liked it.

Ten A-LAWS Aheads shot towards the defending Gundams.

"Gundam teams, we're holding the line here. _"_ Jaden called out from his cockpit. "Keep their attention on you and _not_ Katharon. If we do this right, we can save lives here. And above all, DO NOT let them drop automatons! _"_

" _Those would be the things dropping in from that Ahead, yes?_ " Ron asked over the comm. Jaden blinked before seeing a number of them drop to the ground from an Ahead, swarming for the entrance.

"Fuck!"

" _Don't worry about them. I'll handle it_."

"Excuse me?"

"I said that I'd handle it." Ron dismissed him, readying his rifle. "A few dozen attack drones aren't a problem. I've faced down _Iconians_." The closed hangar doors started taking fire. "ALRIGHT COCK WAFFLES!" Everyone turned towards the insult, astounded, mad, or, despite themselves, giggling. "BACK AWAY FROM THE DOOR IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIVES!"

They all scrambled for cover.

The Borg captain shouldered his rifle and took aim. "Walls are no obstacle."

Ron's personal tricorder fed information directly to his multi-spectral right eye, telling him _exactly_ where the automatons were. Adjusting the fire selector, he chose his target and fired.

An ultra-dense beam of nadion particles streamed out from the dual prongs of his compression rifle, burned _through_ the hangar's blast door and cut right through two drones.

"What the fuck was that?!" A Kathron fighter yelled.

"My boomstick!" Another automation rushed inside through the hole, but Ron rolled under it, riddling it's underside with phaser bolts before rolling outside. A swarm faced him.

"A-Laws could do better." He commented, grinning like the Joker.

The sand became covered with spent shell casings.

* * *

Jaden watched as Ron tore into the automatons, literally ripping one apart with his bare hands before stopping another. He zoomed in on the captain, seeing a pair of… tubules extend from his right hand before the machine turned on its' comrades.

"Okay, seriously, what the fuck?" Jaden shouted. "I know you Starfleet guys are OP motherfuckers, but THAT is some serious bullshit!"

" _We'll talk about it-YES!_ " Takeshi shouted, as he soared out of the base, now driving the CBNGN-003 Union Flag Kai, arcing towards the closest GNX and then with one mighty swing cleaved it in half with the GN Sword II Kai. " _I KNEW I'D LOVE THESE THINGS!_ "

"Just wait till you get a Gundam!" Jaden retorted, with a chuckle, "Also, use the beam gun sparingly! I haven't had a chance to extend how much energy the GN Condensers can hold!"

" _Gotcha!_ " Takeshi replied, going after the enemy in melee, his Spatial Awareness letting him dodge shots as he made his way through the A-LAWS forces.

The Katharon forces took full advantage of the confusion, pressing their attack. But Jaden was still focused on the captain.

He wasn't human. There was no WAY he could be human.

So what the hell WAS he?

However, hopefully _those_ answers would come after they deal with the A-Laws, as Jaden rose the 0 Gundam Mk-II up and flew into the battlefield.

He could worry later. He had to deal with them first.

* * *

Takeshi was enjoying himself. The cockpit was a little restrictive, but it was better than nothing. " _Enjoying yourself, Take?_ "

"Immensely!" Takeshi replied. "This is like nothing I've ever done before!"

" _Don't get too attached. We've got work to do, not to mention get home._ "

"You're ruining my fun, Ron."

" _Fuck your fun: we have a JOB to do._ "

Takeshi sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I know…"

Orange bolts impacted a GNX-III's head, destroying the optics. " _Fuck! That asshole can HURT us?!_ "

" _He's aiming for the joints! That rifle's got a limit!_ "

The _Ra-Horakhty_ cored the same GNX, flying past with a hum.

Sonja wasn't the best pilot, but these guys SUCKED.

The only one that didn't suck was that customized Ahead-type, which seemed to dodge almost like Takeshi when his Spatial Awareness was going full tilt. In fact, Takeshi could almost feel an odd tingle regarding that pilot, almost like a resonance of some kind.

…and that resonance also seemed to be coming from the Arios, albeit much weaker. What the heck was going on?

" _They're falling back. Give them more incentive to piss off._ " The _Ra-horakhty_ fired at the retreating GNXs, destroying one more and ripping another one apart.

" _Whoever you bastards are, you'll pay!_ " A wingman-less pilot yelled over the wideband.

" _Yeah, good luck with that, fuck for brains. All units, RTB._ "

"Roger," Takeshi replied, giving the retreating Ahead one last glance, before returning to the Katharon base, his gaze drifting to the Arios once or twice.

He was going to find out just what was going on.

* * *

Tieria looked at the captain of the most powerful ship in the entire Sol System.

He was fat, yet athletic, the fat serving as natural protection for his muscles and organs. The right eye never seemed to vary in dilation, something no one noticed until now.

"What are you? You're not human. No human could do what you could do."

"Naturally. I'm not entirely human anymore."

"…Anymore?" Lockon asked.

"You're better off not knowing," Takeshi replied. "Some of the things we encounter would give the average person nightmares."

"Oh, no, you're not getting away with it THAT easily!" Ron shrugged, then pulled a knife out of his belt. Everyone pointed their guns at him before he took it to his own head, specifically his eye.

"This is always a bitch to do." Ron sighed, putting his hand over his eyes.

"Wait, you're not telling—"

 _POP_!

"Catch!" He tossed something at Sumeragi, who caught it.

It was Ron's right eye.

And it was mechanical.

"A cyborg?" Sumeragi asked.

"70% of my body. Heart, lungs, I think my kidneys. Even half my brain. Wanna see?"

The response, for the most part, was collective and loud. "NO!"

Setsuna just stared at the empty eye socket.

Takeshi sighed. "Imagine, if you will, a race of cybernetic machines," He said. "Hive mind consciousness, part flesh, mostly machine. Its sole purpose? To take all races in the galaxy, possibly even the universe, and 'integrate their technological and biological distinctiveness' into their Collective. They're known as the Borg."

"And… he…"

"I was assimilated on Stardate 78501.5 - July 3rd, 2401 at 0122 hours - on board the USS _Tempest_." Ron listed, just a bit of sadness filtering through. "Since that day, I was no longer whole. Can I have my eye back?"

Sumeragi stoically tossed it back, THEN promptly puked.

"Lady, you need to cut down on the booze. MY liver can barely take the shit you'd pour into it and I've got the artificial filters!"

Takeshi sighed, even as everyone else glared a bit at Ron. "We've been able to free people from the Borg hive mind, but it's never all that easy, often more down to luck than anything else, and these days it's practically impossible to remove all of the implants some Liberated Drones may have. Still… I apologize for Ron's behavior - even _before_ his assimilation, he was rather… blunt."

"And insane?" Lockon asked.

"Yeah. As for his strength… it's only improved. He's always been better, smarter. I'd call genetic tampering, but his mother's clean and it's illegal to do so. Still, after what he did in the Collective, I'm not surprised he's nuts."

Lockon looked at the captain as he finished putting his eye back in. "How the hell can you live with yourself? You probably forced people into being the same… things you became!"

"…I can't." Ron hung his head, before turning on his heel and left the room they were using, shutting the door quietly.

"He's always had problems dealing with it," Takeshi told them. "Especially since they replaced half his brain with a computer. We've been trying to get him to put it behind him and move on, and his relationship with Cassie has helped a bit, but I don't think he'll ever fully put it behind him."

"…Who's Cassie?"

"Oh, someone that just so happens to be in control of one of the most powerful starships the Federation's ever built."

"Oh, come on—"

Jaden looked at Tieria. "Trust me. The _Ra Cailum_ outguns EVERYTHING. And we haven't seen everything that ship can do!"

Takeshi chuckled. "There are still a few ships in our universe made by other powers that can outgun an _Odyssey_ -class vessel," he said. "Emphasis on _few_."

"How… few?" Tieria asked.

"Count on one hand."

"That's not a lot."

Takeshi nodded, emphasizing the point. "That should tell you a lot."

* * *

 **CBS-71 _Morningstar_**

* * *

It was big, curved and had the same script on the _Ra-Horakhty_ 's nose.

" _Raet-Tawy_? What the hell kind of name is that?" Parker asked.

"Egyptian, I think."

"It is," said Cassie, as her holographic avatar appeared before them. "All the _Ra Cailum_ 's auxiliary craft have an Egyptian naming theme - only the _Firestorm_ didn't, but now that we're taking one of our ships in component storage and putting it together for Takeshi, the _Firestorm_ name is moving to the new ship."

They stared at Cassie. "Am I the only one weirded out by the fact that you appeared out of nowhere?" McKenzie questioned.

"I'm an AI; this is just a holographic avatar. My real self is contained in the shuttle."

Twilight whistled. "You have an AI-grade computer core that can fit inside a shuttle? That's very impressive. I haven't seen VEDA personally, but I know it must be huge."

"From what I've heard, it's a quantum computer five times the size of the ones on the _Ra Cailum_. Decidedly more primitive, but we use positronics."

"Positronic quantum computers? Fuck me, your ship must have the processing power of an entire civilization!"

"A Kardashev Tier 5 civilization. Yours might come up to seven." Cassie 'clapped' her hands. "Anyway, where is the VEDA terminal? I'm gonna try to hack it,"

"You think you can back-hack a way into Veda?"

"There are VERY few computers I can't hack. All I need is an open connection."

Twilight led the hologram through the ship. "The terminals use quantum brainwaves to activate, but we haven't been able to use them since Falling angels."

Cassie took one look at the room and knew what it was."QEC-based comms. Not a very effective system. Subspace is more versatile."

Twilight's eyes bugged out. "GodDAMN is there anything else you _don't_ have?"

"Reliable wormhole generators, Iconian Gateways, invincible ships…"

"Well fuck me…"

"Sorry, I'm taken."

Twilight sputtered and whacked the hologram across the head. "Not like that!"

"Ok, there's equipment from my shuttle I can use to hook into this thing. Mind getting it for me? Holographics aren't exactly suited for work that produces EM discharges. My containment field will go bye-bye."

"I'll have the Haro Karel's move them out," Twilight said, "But even then, not sure if you can access it… only Innovades can use the VEDA Terminal."

Cassie rose her brow "Innovade?"

"Celestial Being-designed artificial humanoids, like myself," Twilight informed. "We're used as portable terminals with access to Veda at all times, some are built for combat roles like Pride, while others are more for intelligence-gathering like myself. It's as a failsafe to ensure that celestial being's secrets don't fall into the wrong hands…" she then snorted/ "All the help _that_ did us..."

"Well, I'll get hacking as soon as I can."

She blinked. "Wait you said only portable terminals could do it?"

"Yes."

"Anything about their mental abilities I should know about?"

"Beyond our ability to use quantum brainwaves, no."

"Psionics by any other name. I have an idea. I just need someone that's got more brain power then you do."

Twilight rose her brow "…who…wait- nevermind, I have an idea… go ahead and have him come up here when he can."

"He'll be up here in a matter of moments."

* * *

 **CBS-74 Ptolemaeus II**

* * *

Sumeragi wanted more information.

ANYTHING that could get them an edge.

"You've been on board that ship, Jaden. What can you tell me?"

"Nothing that would help."

"If they turn on us, I need SOMETHING to work with!"

"We're FUCKED if they turn against us," Jaden informed, leaning back against the wall. "Sumeragi, they have weapons that can gut the best ships the ESF has to offer, teleportation technology, hull's made out of a metal that's thirty times stronger than steel, higher processing computer powers, personal energy shields, and their captain is a walking, talking darwin award-generating anti-son-of-a-bitch machine, and his crew are just as insane as he is."

Sumeragi sighed "Suggestions?"

"Like I said before, don't piss him off." He said, "Or the rest of the Federation if we ever meet them. Right now, we need to play nice with them. They want to learn more about GN tech, so I'm giving it to them - in exchange they'll give us trips to Jupiter and back so we can start building more Pure GN Drives for our own use. In the meantime… I'm gonna find a way to let them help us more."

"How do we do that?" Lockon asked. "That prime directive-"

"-applies to pre-warp species, which we are," Jaden informed. "If we can create our _own_ warp drive, the _Ra Cailum_ will be more… _free_ to aide us."

"That could take years."

"Not exactly… I have a few ideas," Jaden corrected. "While I didn't look at their actual console readouts, Sonja - their chief engineer who is freaking _amazing_ , told me all I really needed to know… matter through one end, antimatter another, and in the middle a stabilizing dilithium crystal… while I have no idea where to _find_ Dilithium, I do have an idea for a substitute… once I get to Krung Thep, I'm putting the _Morningstar_ through a little retrofit to see if this theory of mine works."

"And if it does?"

"Then we'll have a BIG fucking ally with the most powerful ship and weapons in the fucking universe giving us a hand!"

He had a point. The Ra Cailum could come in handy for taking care of A-Laws.

Not to mention if they could get around more of their regulations…

"And don't even think about it. Their technology is off the table. They just don't trust us with it." Jaden paused. "Actually, they don't trust ANYONE with it. And I can see why."

Sumeragi raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"Look at us! We're plotting on how to make use of their shit to make our own better! Fuck, Celestial Being's supposed to be BETTER than this. And look at us. Proving Pinkerton's point. The only thing separating him from us is 250 years of humanity being a founding member of an interstellar power and knowing real peace on Earth. They must be looking at us and thinking that we're primitive savages. And he's fucking right!"

"We have the same goal, to end-"

"Oh shut your fucking trap, Tieria!" Jaden snapped, shocking the others. "We tried to 'end war' and look what fucking happened! The world is WORSE because of our interventions! We started playing god with the world, and now the ESF and A-Laws have _our_ tech, and have been making a mess of the earth sphere ever since! _This_ is why the Federation has the prime directive to begin with! To keep this kind of shit from happening, because all it takes is one asshole who thinks he's better than everyone else, to take that tech and take advantage of what's given to them before they fucking earn it! They ended war between humanity, but they didn't need Celestial Being to do it! If _they_ could do it, so could've we! But no, we had to pretend just because we have all this fancy tech, we got to play god and force our ultimatum over everyone else!"

"We try this shit with the Federation, or anyone from their universe? We'd get labeled _terrorists_ , and get turned into a smudge in history books," he warned. "So excuse me and my crew for being the only people in Celestial Being who have a FUCKING BRAIN!"

The main team actually backed away from the angry engineer. "You honestly think that?"

"Yes. Everyone in this fucking organization is either brainwashed into believing the ideals or blackmailed into doing it. Hell, the Starfleet guys told me that if you wanted to join, you had to make the choice for yourselves. You're given all the information and given time to think about it. If you say no, they leave you alone unless you ask. Us? We don't give that choice at all. Either you're in or you're dead."

Sad part, he was right. They had collared pilots, and weren't afraid to kill them if they got out of hand.

"There is one thing we failed to think of. His blood."

Jaden knew exactly. "The Borg shit in it, you mean."

"Yes. That's a warning in and of itself. Of how you can abuse it and how it ends up destroying you."

* * *

 **A-Laws atmospheric carrier**

* * *

Kati Mannequin had a hard time believing the reports.

A superdreadnought of some kind with technology making Celestial Being's look bad?

It was ridiculous.

And yet, that's what the few recordings gotten from mission recorders from discovering the missing patrol were saying.

And then there was that weird mobile armor from the attack on the Katharon base.

They only had one thing to ID the massive dreadnought.

A name and seeming registry.

USS Ra Cailum, NCC-94517-A.

It was not enough, as the ship disappeared shortly afterward.

Kati didn't like this at all. She was fighting something they knew very little about, and so far all their engagements with this unknown faction have gone _horribly_ for them. The A-Laws high command was going into controlled chaos to learn what they can, but all their attempts, all of their greatest agents have turned up with little to nothing on whoever these people were.

Only two things were certain: they were powerful.

And they were clearly VERY pissed off if this Captain Pinkerton's tone of voice could be any indication.

She summed up their chances verbally.

"We're screwed."

* * *

 **117Jorn: Rape, rapraperaperape, raperape, raperaperaperape raperape, raperaperaperape, raperaperaperaperaperaperape,**

 **Ron the True Fan: Ooooooooooooh, my favorite song! (Takeshi Yamato: Anything that can be sung to the word rape is your favorite. Ron: I ain't denying that!)**

 **117Jorn: But it's none the less true! A-Laws gonna get FUUUKED!**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yep. Anderson, if you would?**

 **Abridged Anderson: Well, you know what time it is! (RAPE)**

 **Ja Ne!**


	6. Chapter 6

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

 **2312 AD**

* * *

"Simply put, boss, we were not designed as a carrier." Sonja explained to Ron. "Mobius Squadron was tacked on with the new secondary bay are an afterthought."

"So we need an actual carrier. Not a problem. Ideas?"

"We could see about making one from those two _Sabers_ we still have in storage," Takeshi remarked.

"What's the status on the _Mercury_?"

"Almost ready for impulse drive tests. It would go faster if Takeshi stopped bothering my fucking engineers!"

"I'm excited!" said man shouted.

"So am I to get you the hell off my ship for extended periods of time; you don't see me bugging her!"

"Thinking of fun times with Cassie?" Take teased.

Ron glared at Takeshi. "You will end that train of thought now or there will be blood. Mostly yours."

Takeshi abruptly shut up.

"Now, it'll be a few days until your ship is even ready to move. Sonja?"

"The pulse cannons are giving us problems. I'm going to have to rebuild them completely."

"Do what you need to do, just do it fast."

"Understood, boss," Sonja replied. "I'll get it done."

"And Celestial Being?"

"Avoiding asking us favors like the plague. I think they know that we're not really interested in getting completely involved just yet." Takeshi chuckled. "Honestly, it seems like Jaden is one of the few people in that group with his head screwed on right."

"Small mercies. I'm going on board the _Morningstar_ : Cassie wants my help with something."

"And not to screw your brains out? Or at least try?"

Ron's head slowly trained on Takeshi before he lunged. Sonja expertly left before everything got out of hand.

 ** _SMASH_**!

"MY CUTTLEFISH!"

Too late.

* * *

Jaden tried to not facepalm. He REALLY did.

But he REALLY wanted to leave Celestial Being right now.

"Not only did you take in an enemy pilot, you're STILL trying to figure out a way to defeat the _Ra Cailum_?"

Sumeragi closed the tactical simulator - the latest simulation was an absolute failure, again - and looked at Jaden. "We have to consider everything."

"Well, stop trying to figure out how to beat the _Ra Cailum_ ," Jaden told her bluntly. "As we are now, it isn't happening."

Sumeragi shivered. In fear. "I've lost enough people. If that ship fires on us—"

"It'll because you did something stupid like shooting at them. Seriously, we boarded his ship but did nothing to hurt his crew. A-Laws shot at them. We were curious, they were malevolent. That was our only saving grace."

"Forgive me for wanting to have options for a worst-case scenario," Sumeragi replied sharply. "I didn't have any four years ago, and look where that got us."

"This is different and you know it, Sumeragi." Jaden retorted, "Then we were arrogant enough to think we'd never have a traitor within CB, and we paid for it dearly - the whole world has. Starfleet has no reason to become our enemy unless we give them a reason, so let's not."

"Doesn't stop me from trying to come up with a countermeasure. Always, we've been the most powerful force in the Earth Sphere. Now, we've been forced to second-fiddle to a starship from another universe. I don't like having to deal with unknowns."

"No one does. But they're good people. A little crazy, but good. I'll be returning to the Morningstar soon: that transporter thing comes in handy. Pretty hard to get a lock on anything thanks to the GN particles, but these guys do it easy. Shows you that they're the best."

The best. They fought against something called the 'Iconians', which were _superior_. And they _won_.

Sumeragi had to give up her plans to counter the _Ra Cailum._ If Pinkerton was honest, and he was BRUTALLY honest all the time, he was leaving as soon as the assholes who took Veda were dealt with.

* * *

 **USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

"You're DAMN lucky my cuttlefish are still alive."

The little squid swam up to their new glass wall separating them from their big friend, changing color to match his uniform.

"That's kinda creepy."

"Really, I think it's cute."

Takeshi sighed. "Well, I guess we'll have to fix the fish tank," he remarked. "And we'll need to reinforce the glass this time to make it Angry-Ron-proof."

"I'm the only one allowed to make sex jokes on this ship." Ron declared, waving a finger."Speaking of jokes, what's Celestial Being's status?"

If that wasn't pointed at their goal and not the organization's high levels of competence at OTHER tasks, Takeshi would not have laughed.

"Well they picked up an A-Laws defector, named Soma but claims her name is Maria… they launched some infiltration operation to learn more about whoever the heck is running the show for the A-Laws, and the _Ptolemy II_ seems to have returned to space and is heading to Krung Thep," Takeshi said, looking at a PADD.

"And our friends who actually have _brains_?" Takeshi snorted slightly, knowing he was talking about the _Morningstar_ crew. So far the crew of the CB mothership had proven to have their heads on more straight than - as Ron put it 'Anyone else in this damned universe'.

"Well, now that they're at the asteroid base their fulfilling their end of the deal. Jaden's begun designing new mobile suits for Starfleet… he also heard of our… _carrier_ issue, and actually has been tossing some fairly decent carrier concepts at Sonja using what he does know about how our ships work."

"Goodie. As soon as we're ready, I want those _Sabers_ rebuilt into a carrier. Starfleet's been bitching at us for a year and a half about not doing our jobs; this should finally get Jellico to fuck off. Speaking of which, it's time to go on the offensive."

"Oh, boy. CB isn't going to be happy with that."

"Level of caring, Take. Cassie—fuck, I forgot, she's on the _Morningstar_. Bridge, get me a link to the _Ptolemaios_."

* * *

 **CBS-74 _Ptolemaios_ II**

* * *

"You need MY permission to go and attack things?"

Ron's face on the screen was as stone. " _Yes_."

"WHY, exactly?"

" _Let's be blunt here: I might be operating independently of your organization, but in joint operations like this, I have to defer to the higher ranking officer. You are technically Celestial Being's de facto leader, so… permission. Needed._ "

Sumagari sighed, rubbing her face in her hands and feeling the urge to get wasted. "We need all the help we can get, so… permission granted."

Ron's face of stone suddenly turned into a terrifying grin. " _Good. Thank you."_

The call ended. Milana looked at Sumeragi in fear. "Why do I get the feeling you just unleashed a monster on the Earth Sphere?"

"I'm sorry, Mileina, I can't hear you over the sound of the massive mistake I just made by unleashing a monster on the Earth Sphere."

* * *

"Deploy the _Khepri_ to escort that ship back to its' port. WE are going hunting. All hands!"

( **BGM: EFSF - Gundam Unicorn OST** )

Corpsa activated the alert klaxons, telling them to go to red alert.

"Stand to battle stations!"

The _Ra Cailum_ decloaked, right in front of an A-Laws fleet.

"WHAT THE FUCK?! Where did that ship come from?!"

"Oh, God, it's the _Ra Cailum_!" One of the survivors from the first attack yelled. "Get us out of here!"

Ron chuckled. "Ah, the screams of terror knowing you're absolutely fucked. I LOVE them when they come from the enemy. Still, let's be nice about this. Corpie?"

"Firing warning shot."

The underside beam bank fired, sending a orange beam out that cut off a destroyer's port nacelle, sending it into an uncontrolled spin. Two _Baikals_ and half-a-dozen mobile suits broke off right then and there.

" _Run!"_

" _Traitors!"_ One of the ships turned to fire on the retreating vessels, but that cruiser was simply cored by the _Ra Calium,_ which flew through the explosion.

Corpsa shook her head. "Firing on their own people? Man, those pink-skins are stupider than I thought."

"Corpie… " Ron warned.

"Not us, sir And STOP calling me that!"

"The moment I stop calling you that is the day you leave this ship. And you've NEVER put in for a transfer request. I doubt you ever will. Tear these motherfuckers apart! Show them what happens when you fuck with the _Ra Cailum_!"

* * *

Revive Revival saw the power of the _Ra Cailum_ in person. His machine fired at the massive superdreadnought, but the shots bounced off its' shields like BB pellets against a tank.

Granted, the shields drained slightly, but not by much: his Gadessa fired shot after shot into the damn thing before the Tau drive ran out of particles and he was forced to get the fuck out before the _Ra Cailum_ turned its' eyes on his machine.

"Damn it! Ribbons, what can we do?"

The reply was sent, and Revive nodded with the plan. "Yes… The Memento Mori. That should solve the problem."

The remaining A-LAWS fleet fell back, a measly two warships and seven mobile suits surviving the massacre.

* * *

"I know that ship is powerful, but…" The path they unintentionally cleared for the _Ptolemaios_ was filled with debris. None of it Starfleet. "THAT is madness!"

"Madness, maybe." Marie Parfacy looked at the massive form of the _Ra Cailum_ as it lazily orbited the Earth. "But that power can't be denied."

The escort launched from the _Ra Cailum's_ rear end before the ship sped away. "Ptolemaeus _, this is_ Khepri _. The captain wants us to escort you back to your base."_

Ian scoffed. "Like we'll be encountering any resistance! You just scared away every A-LAWS ship in the sector!"

A chuckle came over the line. " _Well, what can you say. It's our specialty!"_

"We're not going to need any aid in getting back—"

 _"The captain insisted. We're allies and you need the best defense."_

And other than the unholy monster that was the _Ra Cailum_ , the _Khepri_ was the most powerful starship in the system.

* * *

The journey back to the asteroid base at L3 was uneventful, save for having the _Khepri_ alongside.

Setsuna did not like the fact that they had to rely on the _Ra Cailum_ for cover, but when they came under attack by a custom MS that hacked one of the GN swords in hack and the _Khepri_ forced it to flee, he had little choice but to accept it.

"Anyone mind telling me what the _Morningstar_ is doing? Jaden's a little too accepting of those Starfleet people and that's a bad thing. What if he turns on us?"

"You don't get it," Lockon affirmed. "If they turn on us, we. Are. Fucked. The only way we are taking that thing on is if _every_ war machine in the Earth Sphere turns and engages that starship, and I seriously doubt that we have seen that ship's _entire_ arsenal."

The 'photon torpedoes' were still something none of them had seen: Ron was being either stingy with their use (from what little they knew, he never used anything they couldn't replace immediately) or they were so powerful that he didn't want to use them (unlike his XO, he knew overkill existed) or something else entirely. And then there were 'Quantum torpedoes', which they'd only heard RUMORS of.

Regardless, Lockon was right. They hadn't seen all of the _Ra Cailum's_ arsenal by a long shot.

And if they were right, the _Ra Cailum_ could probably tank the full power of 00 in Trans-am. Not something they wanted to think about.

* * *

 **USS _Ra Cailum_ , Yamato quarters**

* * *

Takeshi was barely able to contain his excitement.

Then again, not only was he going to get a new Mobile Suit, but he was moving off the _Ra Cailum_ and into an oversized fighter on crack. It wasn't really that surprising.

"Finally getting ready to move out?"

"Yup! New ship, new machine, new everything!"

Luna decided to pop a few ballooning egos. "You DO realize that you're not getting a promotion out of this. Until we get in contact with Starfleet, you're still going to be a commander. And maybe even then, they'll promote you, then they'll promote Ron to keep you on a tight leash."

Takeshi sighed. "True," he admitted. "Still, you're forgetting the biggest advantage of this - separate ships means we won't be walking in on him and Cassie as often - and there's less chance of him walking in on _us_ if we decide to have some fun."

"Oh, that's a plus. On the other hand, Ron could still walk in on us. He likes banging on the door to get out attention when the comms are off."

"Oh, dear god, you're right."

* * *

 **Meanwhile - _Morningstar_**

* * *

Ron nodded slightly as he hopped slightly in the guest room provided to him (and Cassie) on the _Morningstar_. "Well… I'll give credit where its due," he said, "Kid was on my ship for just a few day, and he already figured out how to create artificial gravity."

"He's a quick learner," Cassie admitted, her holographic form standing next to Ron. "Give him some time and training, he could become the next Scotty."

"Scotty's successor is my chief engineer and we all know it."

"Still, sorry for dragging you here. The terminal won't give a proper connection to Veda, seeing as Jaden had more foresight to back up their data without Veda." As a consequence, the connection wasn't as strong as it could have been. Jaden's caution unwittingly bit them in the ass.

"Well, just means we have to try with the OTHER group of morons."

Cassie narrowed her eyes. "I'm not insulting the _Morningstar's_ crew." Ron raised his arms in defense. "Just CB in gener—"

 _"_ Ra Cailum _to Captain Pinkerton."_

Ron blew out a breath."Saved by the bell. What is it, Corpsa?"

 _"We're picking up massive power generation in the low orbital ring. I think you need to get back."_

Ron sighed. "It _never_ fails…" he muttered, glancing at Cassie "Sorry, but-"

"Duty calls, I know." She smiled, "Don't worry, I'll get things set up here…"

Ron disappeared in a shower of light, reappearing on the bridge of the _Ra Cailum_. "THAT is getting less difficult."

"GN particles get easy to cut through when the target's flight path is predictable."

"What was that about power generation?"

Corpsa pulled up the images on the main screen. "It's a solar-powered particle cannon. Power output matches that of a city-buster WMD."

"Our phasers at full power set on wide beam. I'd be impressed." He grinned. "If we weren't going to _blow it the fuck up_."

Corpsa giggled maniacally. "What's on the platter today, boss?"

Ron shrugged, plopping down into the Chair. "Oh, I think two photon torpedoes would do fine to serve out some justice, don't you?"

* * *

 **Lower Orbital Ring**

 ** _Baikal-_** **class cruiser _Obliterator_**

 **In geosynchronous Orbit with _Memento Mori_ **

* * *

"Charge status on the Memento Mori?" Brigadier General Arthur Goodman asked.

"One hundred percent, General." A lackey reported. "We are ready to fire."

"What shall be our target today, General?" Major Aber Rindt asked the commander, a manic smile gracing his face.

"Our standing orders are to fire on the mysterious ship if she is spotted, but so far she has disappeared from our scopes." Goodman replied. "So, our current orders are to fire on the Kingdom of Suille to… _persuade_ the rest of the Middle East to join the Reformation plan." He turned to the fire controller. "Begin firing sequence!"

"Yes sir!" The bridge crew got busy. "Memento Mori firing sequence initialized. Main lenses deployed. Firing in ten."

"Nine." The charging wheel spun up.

"Eight."

"Seven."

"Six." Energy started to coalesce in the lower lense.

"Five." The light grew brighter as the energy traveled to the second lense.

"Four." The energy traveled to the last and smallest lense.

"Three."

"Two."

"One-" Arthur looked up and watched as two glowing red projectiles streaked out of nowhere, flying past the bridge of the _Obliterator._

He had one moment to comprehend his death. "What the fuc-"

The two photon torpedoes slammed into the side of the Memento Mori, digging deep into the armor before the magnetic containment fields in the weapons of destruction failed and unleashed _antimatter_ on the weapons installation.

The entire weapon was consumed in a bright, fiery explosion that could be seen on the surface. The fireball expanded out, consuming the _Obliterator,_ the defense fleet, and most of the lower orbital ring in an instant, ending the threat to the lives below.

Standing above it all was the proud, victorious _and_ terrifying shape of the _Odyssey-_ class _Ra Calium._

* * *

Her master cackled as two kilometers of thick E-carbon plating fell to earth. "Silly A-Laws. Don't you know? I know _everything_ that goes on here." He gestured to Corpsa. "Recloak the ship; Riza, get us out of here!"

"On it!"

* * *

Ribbons was openly gaping. Memento Mori was destroyed.

That son of a bitch VAPORIZED his weapon and crippled that section of the low orbital ring!

AND WITH TWO PROJECTILES!

"FIND THAT SHIP!" He roared, eyes shining as his brain tried to exert itself on reality.

Wang Liu Mei widened her eyes in shock at the normally collected man, but steeled herself and stepped forward.

"If you find Celestial Being, you'll find that ship. Draw them out."

"I intend to."

* * *

 **CBS-71 _Morningstar_**

* * *

"Holy piss, did you SEE that?"

"That's 60 meter thick E-carbon plating and they blew through it like it wasn't there," Jaden reported in shock. "They destroyed the _entire_ defending fleet AND a good portion of the orbital ring! You could see the fucking explosion from all the way out here!"

"Okay, now THAT is some OP Bullshit!" Hikaru shouted. "What the hell did they SHOOT at that thing to begin with?!"

"Photon Torpedoes," Jaden answered, sighing. "Remember? The same weapons they can use to kill stars and planets? Sonja told me they could actually change their yield at will to take down smaller or larger targets."

"Seriously?! What the hell do they have to run into that needs shit that can blow up part of the ring?!"

Jaden remained silent. He'd read the records. The Klingon Empire. The Romulan Star Empire. The Cardassian Union. The Borg. The Dominion.

The Iconians.

All of them were powerful, deadly races that had similar levels of defensive and offensive technologies. All of whom could swat CB from the sky like a flyswatter crushing a bug.

Still, he had other things to worry about.

"Okay people, yes yes we know Starfleet are OP beasts," he informed. "But in the next few days, we just might be able to take our first step towards becoming a fraction of what they're like… once it's installed, get ready to hail the _Ra Cailum_!"

"Yes sir!"

* * *

Several days passed, and after the destruction of the A-Laws superweapon… suddenly it was very quiet across the Earth Sphere. The A-Laws and ESF were reeling from the surprise assault, while Katharon and CB continued their own work under the watchful eye of the _Ra Cailum_.

"So… they asked you to leave?" Ron asked, looking at Cassie who was sent back to their ship.

"Jaden asked me to leave, but only temporarily," Cassie shrugged. "They said they had a big surprise for us… hang on, we've got a hail coming in from them now."

"On screen," Ron said, and quickly the front view screen displayed the image of Jaden.

" _Hey Captain Pinkerton! You mind doing us a favor and keep an eye on the_ Morningstar _for the next few minutes?_ " Jaden said with a grin, causing Ron to blink.

"…why?"

" _Just, just watch us for a sec, alright?_ " Jaden said, " _You might love this…_ "

Ron glanced at Cassie, who shrugged "Tracking your ship now," She said. "So… what's this about?"

" _We're about to go very,_ very _fast._ " Jaden chuckled, " _Adam, Punch it!_ "

The commlink shut off, as the main screen showed the _Morningstar_ , before it suddenly began to glow bright red - the usual sign of the TRANS-AM system being activated… it glowed even brighter, before the ship looked as if it suddenly was stretched forward, then launched forward into space in a burst of speed - leaving behind a vast trail of GN Particles in their wake.

"So they're moving at three times their normal speed. Next."

"Not normal. Sir, their speed is warp .7 and climbing. Rapidly."

Ron blinked. "Are they using a subspace field?"

"Negative. Minor adjustments to their GN field to protect from, well, EVERYTHING, but…" Cassie blinked again. "Warp .84." The _Ra Cailum's_ maximum rated sublight speed was warp .9, and that was pushing the engines to their limits.

"Point 9! Nine-four! Nine-six!"

"Fuck me, they're approaching the warp barrier." Ron realized, breaking out into a smile."Track them!"

"Nine-Eight… Nine-nine…!" Cassie said, blinking before slapping her hands. "Holy shit! They fucking did it! Warp solid 1.1! Holding… holding… and now they're dropping out. Getting a hail."

"On screen!" Ron said, and a few moments later, the _Morningstar_ bridge appeared once more - though it looked a bit more messy, with several panels having gotten blown out. "Captain Takeo… did you just-"

" _Break the warp barrier? You bet your ass I did!_ " Jaden laughed, " _Since we didn't have any Dilithium and no idea where to find it, I was able to substitute its Matter-Antimatter stabilizing effects by using GN Particles in our makeshift warp core! I just pushed the ship into Trans-Am and that's just what we needed to break the barrier!_ " He glanced around, chuckling slightly. " _But ah… ya think you could… pick us up? We kinda burned out all the Tau GN Drives we used to get this far… ehehehe…_ "

"Riza, set a course for their location, warp 1.5. Jaden, send the data you collected to us: Sonja might be able to find a way to extend your flight time."

" _Sure. Thanks._ " The link was cut shortly after the data was sent to them.

"Engage."

* * *

"They did good. Just not good enough." Ron looked at the data himself. GN particles and an M/AM reaction were able to push them to warp 1.1, but that wasn't enough for extra-solar travel.

"Can we enhance this in any way?"

"Combine it with a dilithium focusing crystal and we can easily top our top speed by a factor of five." Sonja said, looking at the numbers herself. "Six, if I want to be a bitch about it."

"Talk to Jaden: see if he'll part with the Trans-Am program. And see if it can improve our own sublight engines."

"Actually, spoke with him when I learned he broke the warp barrier," she said. "He's already prepared to hand over his specs on the Trans-Am warp drive… he just asked for one thing in return."

"That being?"

"When we finish the A-Laws and fix the ESF, he and his crew want to join us." Sonja said, causing Ron to blink. "He says once the A-Laws are through, there really isn't a reason for him and _Morningstar's_ crew to stick with Celestial Being here. He and the crew unanimously agreed."

"That's… fucking amazing. I feel sorry for this universe."

"Why?"

"Because they're about to lose the only people with a brain in their skulls."

Sonja chuckled. That was true.

"Sucks to be this universe, indeed."

* * *

 **117Jorn: WARP SPEED! ENGAGEEEEEE!**

 **Ron the True Fan: (Crash sounds) I thought you learned from Picard's visit to McDonald's.**

 **117Jorn: We're in space! Why would I worry about cars in SPACE?! (Crashes into a shuttle)**

 **Ron the True Fan: Tried to warn you…**

 **117Jorn: Bah, his fault for not turning! We're in space! He has all the time in the world to turn around in any freaking direction!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Oh, boy. See you next week, readers.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	7. Chapter 7

**CBS-74 _Ptolemaios_ II**

 **2312 AD**

* * *

Setsuna stared at the shuttle.

"Why do we need Pinkerton here?"

"We want Veda back." Sumeragi said. "Sadly, he's got the best chance to get it back fast."

"And how does he plan to do that?" Lockon asked as the _Ra Horakhty_ finished docking with the _Ptolemy II_.

"Cassie said something about interfacing with the old Veda terminal onboard," Allelujah said, "Normally I'd say it's impossible since only Tieria could… but when it comes to Starfleet, seems like they can do whatever the hell they want."

Ron exited the shuttle, cackling madly as he spun in zero-G.

"Uh…"

"Let him be crazy." Sumeragi dismissed, long past caring. "As long as we get our supercomputer back."

* * *

"The trace from this terminal should be stronger than the one on the _Morningstar_ : they practically abused it." While they probably replaced all of the connectors, some of the particles in the computer had to be entangled. More from the rebuilt frigate then anyone else.

"You're sure this will work?"

"I've never done a backtrace like this before," Ron admitted. "But I know what I'm doing. Just have Cassie standing by when I begin Operation Fuck You Asshole."

Ian sighed "She'll be ready, just be ready for anything." He said, "We have no idea what's gonna happen if we try to interface with Veda after going dark for so long…"

"That's why I'm here." He extended his tubules into an access port, the terminal activating after a moment. "Connection open. Handshake. Handshake."

' _Well, this is interesting._ ' Ron groaned as something tried invading his brain. ' _Well, you_ are _interesting._ '

' _And who the fuck are you? Are you the fucktard that hijacked control over Veda?_ '

" _I have a counterquestion. Are you the captain of the_ Ra Cailum?'

' _Ronald Pinkerton, supreme asshole, at your service. And you?_ '

' _You may call me Ribbons,_ ' the voice replied, ' _You and your people do know how to make a…_ mess _of things…_ '

Ron grinned viciously, much to Ian's discomfort. And Ribbons'. ' _It's what I do best! And now… You FUCKED UP_!'

' _I have not. Your mind is mine. I will strip it clean of every bit of information I can._ '

Ron's grin deepened. ' _And I'll make you_ bleed _for every_ neuron you touch!'

Ian saw that as the signal. "Commander, NOW!"

"Have fun Cassie!" Cassie grinned as she accessed Veda through Ron, and downloaded herself directly inside.

Somewhere within VEDA, Ribbon's eyes widened as he felt a searing pain within his head, which only grew and grew, before he screamed… and his current body's head exploded. Literally.

Ron's left eye turned red as it became bloodshot. But the pain he could ignore.

He just did what he did best. He fucked someone's day up.

* * *

Ribbons exited the pod within his new body, coughing up fluid, cleaning his throat to scream.

And use coarse language for the second time.

"MotherFUCKER! I will tear your mind apart for this!"

Deep within Veda's systems however, Cassie materialized within as she giggled madly "Oh, this is gonna be _fuuun_ ," she mused to herself, "Now… what do you have to play with, Veda?" She began poking around in several systems - it was mostly childsplay for an AI like herself, maneuvering around security systems and watchdog subroutines, as she recorded all that she found. She wasn't able to access the more higher functions - at least not yet… but one thing caught her eye: the Innovade incubation lab.

She peeked within the files, and inside detail the process of creating Innovades, everything down to their quantum processing capabilities, to other functions… this got Cassie… _thinking_ …

"This will be… interesting."

* * *

 **Krung Thep**

* * *

After moving (all the credit belonged to the _Ra Cailum_ on that one) the people got to work on the first Starfleet MS.

The GNS-01 Tempest. Named for Takeshi's first (and temporary) command. Having heard he was a CQC Specialist, he looked for inspiration with the GN-001 Exia as the basic frame, along with inspiration from the GN-0000/7S 00 Gundam Seven Sword. Though this unit lacked the Twin Drive System that the 00 possessed, Jaden claimed he had 'plans on the backburner' to make something just like that for Takeshi. In the meantime though, the Tempest was just what Takeshi needed. With multiple close-combat swords, a GN Field projector to defend against ranged attacks, and of course the GN Sword Kai to handle the occasional mid-range fight.

When told that Takeshi had some… _accuracy_ problems, Jaden's answer was simple: built within the Tempest was a semi-sentient A.I designed from what he knew about Veda. The system made automatic adjustments when Takeshi aims and fires, which would help him slowly adjust to mid range combat. While it would by no means make him into the Sniper as the same caliber as his wife, it _would_ ensure he would be more reliable in a more ranged battle.

Speaking of his wife though, Jaden had decided that while he was making the Tempest, he went ahead and built her a Mobile Suit as well as a pet project. Once again, Jaden had turned to the four Gen 3 MS for inspiration, and was more than happy to recreate what he claimed to be his favorite of the four: Dynames, as well as some of the more modern GN-006 Cherudim. Advanced targeting scopes, superpowered GN Sniper rifle, some GN Missiles, GN Pistols, and of course. for the occasional melee, some GN Beam Daggers. He had trouble thinking of a name at first… but after tuning on the Radio for a minute, one song played which answered his question for him: GNS-002 Gundam Häyhä.

Within Krung Thep, Jaden was smirking as he looked at the two mobile suits he had invented. They both were still in their rollout grey color… but that was about to change, as he turned off the lights to the part of the hangar they were within, as the door chimed. "Come in!" He called out, as Takeshi and Luna both walked inside.

"Captain Takeo," Takeshi said. "I suppose congratulations are in order for breaking the warp barrier… and impressing Ron _and_ Sonja with _how._ "

"It's what I do," Jaden chuckled, "When I have a problem, I look to… _alternative_ solutions. But of course, that's not why I asked you here… "

"Then what is it?" Luna asked.

"Well…" Jaden sighed, "I've… come to a problem while designing your units and… I think you're the only two I think can answer it."

The married couple blinked, glancing at one another. "And… that being?"

Jaden then smirked, holding up a remote. "How ya want them painted?" he asked, before hitting the switch, revealing the two mobile suits behind him, before the two.

Takeshi's eyes immediately zeroed in on the one with the swords. "That's mine, I take it?" he asked, and at Jaden's nod, he said, "Dark blue with black trim."

Luna, meanwhile, looked over the one with the guns and said, "Dark red with black trim, please."

"Done," He said, pressing a few buttons as several Haro Karals emerged with paint guns as they began to bring color to the factory grey mobile suits. "I went ahead and named them for you… yours, Takeshi is the GNS-001 Gundam Tempest - Sonja told me your first command was a starship of the same name, so I thought you'd like that. And for you, Luna… couldn't figure it out at first, but… I think you'll agree that GNS-002 Gundam Häyhä is a fitting name."

"The White Death." Luna translated, impressed. 700 kills in less than a year, the highest for any sniper. Ever.

Simo "Simuna" Häyhä was the sniper's sniper. EVERYONE looked up to him.

"I _LIKE_ it."

"…you sure you're not related to Ron? You've got that grin…"

Luna smiled. "He's my brother."

Jaden's face fell flat. "Brother."

"Well, _STEP_ -brother. He helped raise me. Then he taught at the Academy. And nearly killed Takeshi when he figured out we were dating."

"Only because _you_ didn't tell him about me when we first _started_ dating," Takeshi snapped semi-irritably. "You didn't tell _me_ about _him_ , either, until just before he showed up to try and kill me."

"It slipped my mind!"

"If you're all done?"

They all turned to face Ron, who recently returned from the _Ptolemaeus_ , left eye still bloodshot. "It's done. Cassie's inside Veda. Ribby's going to have a few billion headaches a day. If he survived our first encounter, at least."

"…Ribby?"

"Ribbons Almark. He's running the group that's controlling the A-Laws behind the scenes, from what Cassie sent me," Ron explained.

"Ah! Well, anyways Ron, glad you're here as well!" Jaden said, grinning. "I actually have a little something for you too…" He aimed the controller at another side of the hangar, and the lights flashed on… revealing a _third_ mobile suit.

Ron blinked. "Is that…"

"Your own Mobile Suit," Jaden answered, "Still a very much work in progress… but I felt if Takeshi and Luna were getting their own machines, I thought you would like your own… she's largely inspired by the MP mobile suits I'm designing as well - I'll show _those_ off when I'm finished - but basically she is a transformer like Kyrios - and is well balanced between CQC and Long-Range armaments. I've also begun experimenting with GN Bit's since if you can access the Veda Terminal, you should be able to utilize the Bits control system as well, allowing you to attack and defend from multiple directions. Feel free to change her name, but I decided to call her… GNS-003 Gundam… Morgan."

"The witch of Le Morte d'Arthur, Morgan le Fay. I'm a fan of witchy."

"Yeah, you and Cassie certainly—" Takeshi took a boot to the face.

"Shut the fuck up."

Jaden was confused. "Uh…"

"Cassie's his girlfriend."

Jaden looked at Luna. "How the fuck does that work?"

She shrugged. "They make it work."

He decided to leave it. Starfleet was _weird_.

"Either way, I should tell you that these new MS have a different cockpit from that of the GN-XIII's the A-Laws and ESF use." He informed, drawing their attention. "It's an experimental design I _was_ going to give to CB… but I thought I'd give it to you guys first." He gestured to a large ball-like object in the hangar.

"What's the difference?" Ron asked, as the four walked up towards it. "Seems basic…"

"At first glance? Yes…" Jaden said, stepping inside before turning it on. "But when it's on…" suddenly the interior of the cockpit lit up with a hexagonal pattern, before the interior of the MS revealed the outside in a full 360 Degrees. "…things are a _lot_ more interesting."

The unholy grin on his face made Jaden back off slightly.

" _Groovy_."

"Did… you just pull an Ash Williams?"

"Damn right I did! Now, I want this thing prepped for launch. It's time for the witch to meet her warlock."

Jaden grinned. Ron was eager.

He LIKED that. "My pleasure."

* * *

Kati Mannequin knew that finding the _Ra Cailum_ was going to be hard, so she shifted focus to the other CB carrier.

And lo and behold, she found them. No sign of the _Ra Cailum_ , but she could draw them out.

Her plan seemed solid at first: attack Celestial Being's asteroid base, lure them out, and have her GN-XIII's under cloaks to engage them while they deployed.

However, plans themselves do not survive first contact with the enemy… which proved true as their E-Sensors picked up not one, but _two_ ships emerging from the base. The first being the CB Mothership they had encountered before… but a second ship also emerged, this one looking identical to the old CB mothership that was destroyed during Fallen Angel. A minor snag, but nothing that shouldn't-

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!" Someone shouted. Kati blinked as one of her cruisers exploded. Violently.

"Report!" A new Gundam appeared, spinning through the wreckage.

" _Surprise, motherfuckers!_ "

Kati paled. That was the voice of the _Ra Cailum's_ captain.

HE was piloting that Gundam?!

" _Who wants to die?!_ "

One of the _Baikals_ Crazy Ivaned, fleeing fast as her engines could carry her, her captain screaming. " _NOT ME! NOT ME!_ "

It would've been entertaining if it weren't accurate.

Unfortunately the other Captain's were not as smart, as they launched Mobile Suits to engage the attacker - though before they could even attempt to approach, suddenly a beam of energy from further in the asteroid belt lanced out and cored two of the GN-XIII's in one shot. " _Wha?! Where did that-_ " Another GN-X was suddenly sliced in half, as a blur of motion flew by the formation.

And once AGAIN, first contact with the enemy resulted in the plan going to shit.

The _Ra Cailum_ and CB had teamed up and made three more Gundams, enhanced versions of the LAST four.

And she wasn't sticking around to see if the fatass was remade.

"In the famous words of King Arthur, RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!"

* * *

"Monty Python strikes again!"

On a submonitor, Takeshi facepalmed. " _Seriously, Ron?_ "

Ron, unlike his brother in law, was not wearing a normal suit.

Ex-drone: he didn't need one. "At least I'm enjoying myself," he admitted, "Too bad we have to beam back to the _Ra Cailum_ : these things won't fit in any of the shuttlebays."

" _Hopefully once that carrier me and Sonja are collaborating on is finished, that won't be a problem!_ " Jaden said over the comms.

" _If we need to, we can always strap them to the hull,_ " Takeshi remarked. " _And hey, maybe Sonja could build a miniature transporter unit to install directly into the cockpits, in case we need rapid entrance or exits._ "

"Either way, ships like the _Ra Cailum_ can't handle MS teams. We can barely hold our shuttles and Mobius Squadron. Hope Cassie's doing ok."

* * *

Ribbons Almark's eye twitched. Repeatedly.

"Whatever he did is SCREWING with us."

( **BGM: Hall of the Mountain King - Apocalyptica version** )

Regene couldn't help but smirk slightly at Ribbons, ever since the incident earlier he has suddenly been acting more… _emotional_ , and she couldn't really blame him. The audio systems of the station were going on and off playing random music which prevented him from thinking clearly, and whenever he would leave or enter rooms, the doors would always slam shut right in front of his face.

"MotherFUCKER!"

At least whoever was doing this had a sense of humor.

Because this was HILARIOUS!

Ribbons then screamed to the heavens.

"RRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!"

* * *

Ron hacked another GNX-III apart. "Someone's screaming my name." He grinned. " ** _Goooooooood_**."

" _Good_?" Luna asked. " _What did you DO to Veda_?"

"I allowed Cassie to upload into the computer. She's driving him INSANE."

Luna began laughing. " _NICE_!"

Takeshi chuckled as he kept hacking machines apart. " _Good to see that you've found yet another way to be a Darwin Award Generator, Ron._ "

"Tis what I do." He vaguely noted 00 Raiser (GNR-010 0 Raiser attached to the 00, acting as a synchrophaser for the Twin Drive) engaging the custom Ahead.

"The fuck is going on over there?"

The Twin Drives suddenly surged, and the Raiser glowed red with light, going into full Trans-Am, suddenly _teleporting_ out of the way of a beam blast.

"Well, about time they broke the heisenberg principle." Then everything went to hell in the form of voices.

' _Where the hell is the Ra Cailum?_!'

 _'I can't feel my legs!'_

 _'Charge complete.'_

Ron gripped his head as the swarming voices brought back long-buried nightmares. "Not again. Not…"

"Ron?! Ron!"

" _Hey! Captain! You alright?_ " Jaden spoke on the comms. " _Captain? CAPTAIN?! What's going on with him?_ "

The Morgan suddenly started drifting as Ron curled up and clutched at his head

' _Borg, assimilatio-no, stop, why did I do that-Borg,go away- why so many voices,Borgvoices, stop-get out-not again… GET OUT OF MY HEAD!'_

THAT was when everything began getting worse.

"Would someone explain to me what the fuck that was about?!" Jaden yelled.

" _The Borg were a hive mind; Ron's reliving—Oh, fuck._ " Takeshi swore, paling. "TELL ME the Button wasn't pushed."

" _Sad to say, Takeshi, it was pushed._ "

" _CRAP!_ " Takeshi yelled, disengaging from his fight. " _ALL UNITS, UNLESS YOU WANT TO FIGHT A BERSERK RON, FALL BACK_ **NOW!** "

" _Wait, what are you talking about?_ " Jaden asked. " _What Butt-_ " Suddenly there was an enraged roar across all the comm channels. " _…never mind, figured it out… ALL CB FORCES, BACK IN THE BASE AND BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!_ "

Ron's right eye flashed red as the Morgan suddenly darted into motion. A _Baikal_ exploded instantly as the Morgan shot around, slicing apart GNXs, vaporizing Aheads, or smashing head-first into cruisers, all the while the A-LAWS _tried_ to run.

Keyword _tried._

While Ron was no innovator, he didn't need to be: his reflexes were beyond human when he chose to be.

So when he ran into Hiling Care, he quickly and unceremoniously destroyed her machine. "WHAT THE FUCK!"

Setsuna watched as Ron tore the artillery MS apart, ripping off the GN mega launcher from the wreckage.

"Setsuna, I really think we need to get the fuck out of here!" Saji yelled.

"Get outta here! Get outta here!" Haro repeated.

" _You will be destroyed. Resistance is futile!_ " Ron roared, turning on the spot and locking onto the 00 Raiser like a sentry gun.

Setsuna didn't like the sound of that. "We don't have a choice. Commander Yamato, how long does this state last?"

" _We've never timed it!_ " Takeshi replied. " _It's never lasted the same amount of time from instance to instance, anyway - until whatever triggers his anger is taken down or he burns through his rage, he's an insane berserker! And he can't really be hurt! Best you can hope is that the invulnerability doesn't extend to his Mobile Suit!_ "

Setsuna HATED Starfleet.

So much so that he made a single utterance.

"Fuck."

* * *

The _Ra Cailum_ was busy evacing personnel and materials, leaving CB and their top officers to fight A-Laws.

"Sucks to be Setsuna. Pseudo-telepathic states end badly, don't they?"

A shift was recorded on their sensors, at L2. "Cassie's ruining their lives, alright. Contact the CB people: we've got a lock on Veda's location."

"Um… yeah, about that." Corpsa breathed out.

"Whattttt…" Sonja asked.

"Ron's going crazy."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"No, I mean kill-everything-in-sight crazy."

Sonja tensed up. "Ohhhhh crap."

"There's a major energy field being generated by 00's drives. It closely resembles that of a psionic field generated by a large group of telepaths."

"The LAST time we ran into a mass group of telepaths, Ron killed all of them!" Ron had vowed that he would never return to the Collective or have his mind unwillingly linked to any more than one person.

In fact, his brain developed a countermeasure: rampage, using an organic chemical that would tell the positronic brain to deactivate the aggression inhibitor and counter any attempt to reactivate it until the threat to his sanity (what was left of it) was destroyed.

They had a Button that could shut the thing off manually, but for the automatics to trigger… yeah, that was a bad thing.

"Tell Setsuna to shut 00 down."

"He's engaged Trans-Am: once activated, it can't be shut down until the time limit is reached."

And Ron had installed a synaptic transceiver in the Morgan for the machine's test flight. In essence, Ron WAS the Morgan. "Then he's going to have to deal with the Captain until his blunder resolves itself."

* * *

Setsuna F. Seiei was **_not_** having a good day.

And it was all thanks to that Starfleet Captain, Ronald Pinkerton.

In hindsight, he'd likely realize it was his own fault - the Captain didn't go berserk until he'd activated Trans-Am, which had triggered that odd state with the voices from all over the place.

What made it WORSE was that it was like fighting Ali Al-Saachez in hand-to-hand combat. "How is he controlling that Gundam?"

" _Synaptic interface: basically, he's using his brain to pilot the damn thing!_ "

"You mean it's literally an extension of his own body?"

" _You're screwed, just saying!_ "

He was pretty much forcing himself to play keep-away from the berserk Captain and his Gundam. However, he seemed to be getting incrementally better at dodging Ron's attacks.

What no one knew at the time was that the massive amount of GN Particles in the area, coupled with the intense stress of having to fight for his life against an unstoppable berserker, was triggering and accelerating a process in Setsuna that, normally, would have taken several months.

Innovation.

Unfortunately, Setsuna couldn't use this to aid him in any way, as while Setsuna was getting better at dodging, he forgot whom he was fighting.

The ultimate adaptive race in any universe: a Borg drone. While no MS experience to speak of aided Setsuna, it was going to stop soon as Ron's Borg mind processed the information and…

Well. Adapted.

' _I just need to keep dodging for another 71 seconds. Unfortunately, he's getting closer and closer to killing me in those 71 seconds._ '

He needed some way to figure out how to turn this around. And as he kept dodging by the skin of his teeth, a part of his mind took to figuring out **_how_** he was still able to dodge.

The answer he came to was something not-quite instinct: it was like he was getting flashes of insight as to where Ron was going to attack bare milliseconds before it happened, which was just enough time to make sure the 00 was not where Ron would be attacking.

Could he use this?

" _Precognition will not aid you. You will be destroyed. Resistance is futile._ "

"Captain, I believe we prefer you being an emotional asshole!" Setsuna slashed, but Ron intercepted with a beam saber before Setsuna broke off.

' _He's adapting too fast for me to counter._ ' Setsuna looked at the gauge. 40 seconds. "Commander, I need assistance."

" _We're NOT suicidal, Setsuna: Ron IS the Gundam at this point. We can't react fast enough!_ "

"I have something of an idea - but it will require him being distracted. Right now he is only focusing on one object - me." Setsuna shivered a bit as he said that. "We need to give him too many things to orient on at once."

 _"Like THAT'S going to work!"_

"Do you have any OTHER ideas?!"

 _"Yes! RUN before he uses Trans-Am on you!"_

The Morgan turned red. "He just did."

 _"We'll pray for you."_

"That is not funny!"

Setsuna kept spinning away and parrying, but he was nearly out of time. He needed some way to end this, now!

He dove his mind deep into whatever near-instinctive sense was letting him dodge. If he could dodge and counter at just the right time…

There!

Ron charged in once more, Setsuna parrying the beam saber with his left GN Sword… which he then released, swiveling around and orienting for a shot with his other sword in rifle mode, all in less than a second.

And in a stroke of luck, the shot hit a specific control node on the synaptic interface without damaging the cockpit itself or hitting anything that would cause the machine to explode.

' _That should reduce the effectiveness of his piloting—_ ' The Morgan's saber impaled 00 through the leg, Setsuna kicking Ron away before he could cause more damage to the Gundam. The 00 Raiser turned back to white and blue, Trans-Am ending.

" _The field is fading. He should be back to normal in a minute._ "

Setsuna kept his distance, waiting to see just what happened, but not letting his guard down.

" _What in the holy FUCK happened?_ "

" _He's back to normal. Setsuna, NEVER do that again. EVER!_ "

"I make no guarantees, Commander," Setsuna replied.

The 00 Raiser's Trans-Am was powerful enough that he would likely need it in the future. Even if it poured out enough GN Particles to generate a mass pseudo-telepathic field.

He would just have to make sure that Captain Pinkerton wasn't in the area before he used it.

"No, seriously. What the hell did you people DO?!"

* * *

"WHY didn't you tell us that thing could create a telepathic field?"

Jaden rose his hands in defense. "Whoa now, I didn't even know the 00 Raiser could do that!" he informed. "A lot of its tech is new even to us! But on that note, why didn't you tell me Ron had a problem with telepaths?"

"We weren't expecting it to be a problem!" Takeshi replied. "Earth hasn't had very many cases of people with telepathic abilities in our universe - only a few races do. We don't have many Vulcans or Betazoids in our crew for that reason, and any we do know to keep their 'mental voice' silent around Ron."

"His experiences with the Borg were that bad?"

"Worse. We ran into a large group of telepaths once that forced their way into our minds. The entire crew was knocked out. All but Ron, who decided to go on a rampage and killed every single one of them. Command wasn't happy until we confirmed that they were all hostile."

Jaden winced. That did _not_ sound good. He decided to focus on the _how_ of the situation. "Well, anyway, as far as we can tell, it's not really a direct result of the 00 - nothing in the drives themselves caused it. All that we can tell happened is that, during Trans-Am, the GN Particle release rate was obscenely high." He hummed thoughtfully. "Best I can gather, it was the Particles themselves - get them into a high enough concentration, and they can connect people's thoughts apparently."

Takeshi sighed. "Geez, talk about unintended side effects," he remarked. "We're probably going to need to test this a few times to see what the limits are - **_without_** Ron around."

"Not going to be easy," Jaden said. "Even after all our work with GN Particle physics, there is a lot about the damn things we don't know… odds are, knowing Aeolia, he had this whole sharing thoughts thing planned out before… " he shook his head. "Well… best we can do is try and find out a way to make sure the next time the 00 Raiser does that, we can mute out the psychic noise for Ron somehow… I'll have some of my people work on that."

"I'll have Sonja work on it, too," Takeshi replied. "Maybe two different groups focusing on the problem can come up with a solution."

"I'll take all the help I can get to prevent _that_ button from getting pushed again," Jaden nodded. "We'll coordinate on a program, keep your fingers crossed that we get something to work."

"I damn well hope so. We don't need Ron going on a rampage."

"Again."

"Yeah. Again."

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: Weaknesses as always.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Even someone like Ron has weaknesses. He just covers them up with lots of killing!**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yep. And it seems that having to fight for his life against the insane berserker has jumpstarted Setsuna's Innovation. It's not complete, not yet, but it's definitely happening a lot faster than in canon.**

 **117Jorn: In short? Shit be going down in Anno Domini, and it sure as hell ain't over yet!**

 **Ron the True Fan: time for blood!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	8. Chapter 8

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

 **2312 AD**

* * *

After ANOTHER moving day (Ron loved building and moving things) the _Ra Cailum_ recovered the GNX-IIIs and Aheads that Ron had nearly ruined in his rampage.

Only one pilot had survived.

And Louise Halevy was scared shitless of the aliens on board.

She also had SEVERE mental problems, as one of the few Betazoids in the crew reported after taking a peek inside her mind.

"If I weren't trying to avoid being a severe asshole, I'd shoot her."

Takeshi and Luna simply raised eyebrows. "You tried that when you were in rampage mode."

"Meh. Get CB to deal with the bitch."

"Actually, its fortunate you _did_ save her," Jaden mused, stepping inside. "One of Celestial Being's volunteers knows her… Saji Crossroad, he's been trying to find her for a while now… she wasn't always like this according to him, she was just a normal teenaged girl, both wanting to work in the colonies…"

"What happened?" Takeshi asked.

"I did…" All heads turned, as Nena Trinity walked into the room, frowning as she bowed her head shamefully. "One mistake… one stupid, immature, fucking mistake…"

"…explanation, please?" Ron asked.

"Me and my brothers… Team Trinity, just began our armed interventions after we saved the main CB team," Nena began, sitting down. "It was mission after mission, barely any time to rest or relax… back then I was… immature, impulsive… I didn't care about Celestial Being's goals, I just… wanted to have fun, to live… I looked from the cockpit… and I saw some castle, where a big wedding was happening… I felt… angry, jealous all these people were having fun, while I was stuck with Celestial Being, doing all their dirty work… "

She shook her head. "Looking back, I… I don't know what came over me…" Nena said. "Next thing I knew… I was flying Drei right over there… and opened fire… killed… everyone there…" She gulped. "I didn't… think twice about it, not at all… then I lost my brothers to that… _bastard_ Ali-Al Saachez, and I ran into the _Morningstar_ and her crew… " She glanced at Jaden "Jaden… convinced me to go to the castle… see what I did…"

"I went back… I saw the memorial… and I saw that… one girl who survived…" she continued. "Losing her whole family… just like me… b-because of me…" She fought back a few tears. "Everything went to hell when I did that… the people hated Celestial Being… my brothers were killed, Fallen Angel… it all fell apart… because of me… now everytime I think about that day, I just… keep seeing the bodies… my brothers, and I… I… might've well of killed them because of… what I did… "

Jaden put a hand on her shoulder, as Nena finally lost control and began to cry. "Nena's been trying to make up for that mistake ever since I recruited her to my crew," He finished for her. "And now… that sole survivor is currently in medbay - suffering from Tau GN Particle poisoning."

"Should be easy enough to fix. We've got similar diseases back home that are… similar."

"Starfleet has answers for everything, doesn't it?"

Ron shook his head. "We have more questions then answers. At the moment, I have only two problems: ending your bullshit war and getting my ship home. The former I can do. The latter is much harder."

Takeshi nodded. "Yeah, from what I gathered from the briefing, best we can do for getting home is just wait for the drive to charge up again, then repeat the experiment to make another crossing between universes - And then just keep doing that until we either figure out how to precisely aim our 'jumping' or make it home, whichever comes first."

"More's the pity."

The monitor on Ron's desk activated before they heard a VERY happy voice. " _Ron! About time I bypassed half that crap Ribby's got set up._ "

"Cassie, nice to hear from you." The loving tone got his sister and brother in law to chuckle before Ron glared at them. "Anything to report on your end?"

" _Just some basic stuff, intel on the Innovades and stuff… I_ was _able to leak details on that superweapon they tried to use - the Memento Mori - to the web… Veda censored it pretty quickly, but… it looks like I caused some heads to turn._ "

"What makes you think that?"

" _…you haven't been paying attention to the news, have you?_ "

"I have a feeling I should."

" _Yeah, do that."_

Ron brought up a holographic screen and tuned it to the ESF's main news channel.

" _-elevator has been overtaken by a hostile ESF army faction."_ The newswoman was saying. " _I repeat, the African orbital elevator has been overtaken by a hostile ESF army faction."_

Takeshi whistled. "Wow. There actually _are_ some smart people down there. They pulled a coup d'etat."

"About damn time!" Luna yelled. "The army was the only group that could see what the A-LAWS were doing without the ESF's news censorship!"

"True that." Ron nodded. "Tell the _Morningstar_ and _Ptolemaeus_ to get ready, 'cause we're going out to help them. I think our presence should be a pretty good deterrent for any aggressive action."

"It's A-Laws. They're not that smart."

"I know. We're going to show off something that no one in the Earth Sphere knows we can do."

* * *

Louise sat in the brig, brooding. That insane Gundam trashed her machine, then she was teleported to some medical center on the _Ra Cailum_. She attacked them, but that doctor quickly disabled her, hitting dozens of nerve clusters before gently placing her on a bed.

And then they… fixed her. She has no idea how they did it, but… they fixed all the cellular damaged brought from the attack, letting her get rid of her robotic arm, allowing for a new arm to be grown and to replace it. She had her arm back… she didn't have to take those damn pills anymore and… for some reason, she just felt… _better_ …

Though, she supposed it also helped that Saji was here as well… she… _felt_ his presence earlier, when the Gundam did that thing with GN particles… she first thought he was working with Celestial Being… but then he explained what happened, at the resource satellite, the same one _her ship_ attacked… he was only with them because he had nowhere else to turn. For the first time since Ribbons recruited her to the A-Laws… she was starting to see just how _insane_ they were being…

Not that the _Ra Cailum_ wasn't helping matters. They FIRED on a _superdreadnought_ , forcing them to ally with Celestial Being. They saved lives, though she had to ask…

"Who was the man who attacked me?"

Saji chuckled. "Oh, that was the ship's captain. He kinda went… nuts."

"Nuts." Louise repeated dryly. "Saji, he nearly killed me."

The doors to sickbay opened, saving Saji from a response. Rutia barely looked up when the redhead entered. "You got five minutes. Either of you get violent, I get violent. And my violence ain't pretty."

She nodded at the doctor before walking over to Louise, who recognized her. "You… you're from the memorial. What are you doing here?"

Nena sighed, pulling out a small handgun first, alarming them… before flipping the gun around and gesturing it to Louise. "Giving you… your chance at revenge." She stated.

Louise blinked in confusion "What… are you talking about?" she asked. "Revenge for…" she then began to put the pieces together. "…you flew that Gundam…"

"…yes." Nena nodded, "I… was the one who… who killed your…" she gulped slightly, "I know… you hate Celestial Being, but… that attack… it wasn't part of their plan… I did that… myself… so don't blame Setsuna, Lockon, or the others… just… just blame me…"

"I know an 'I'm sorry' won't cut it… so if you want revenge…" she continued to hold out the gun. "Just… just take it…"

She took the weapon in hand and studied it. 9mm caseless. Standard issue for everyone.

"No. You were manipulated, just like everyone else. Sometimes I heard thoughts that weren't my own, telling me things." She handed the gun back. "We're all on the same side. But do me a favor."

"Yes?"

"When A-Laws is wiped out… never show your face again. Ever."

Nena smirked somberly. "Girl, if things go right, you'll never see me again."

* * *

The AEU elevator was barely complete, Africa being Africa and all. It was still operational, though.

"Get us in contact with the rebels. Then give me a descent vector."

Jaden blinked. "This thing can FLY? In _atmosphere?!_ "

"The shields can form an aerodynamic shape. We'll fly."

"Not something that's done normally with a ship this size, though," Takeshi informed. " _Intrepid_ -class and _Defiant_ -class vessels are designed to be capable of landing and taking off in atmo, and can fight if need be - the _Mercury_ -class and her two sister classes _Icarus_ and _Ajax_ were all designed from the ground up to be able to fight in atmo - gives an advantage in Dyson Spheres. _Avengers_ also have some special atmo maneuvering too, if I'm not mistaken."

"Dyson spheres?"

"Dyson shells, technically: constructs built around G-type stars. The Iconians made them."

"…WHY does your universe have hyper-advanced shit?"

"Welcome to Starfleet, where advanced technology and weird shit go hand in hand."

"Damn straight." Jaden muttered. "Hope Cassie can hijack airways in Veda… I know the A-Laws will try and paint this whole situation to favor them over the coup faction."

"Knowing her, she's probably got her hand on the trigger," Ron said.

* * *

" _This is a message to all citizens here,_ " Colonel Hercury spoke on the comms across the elevator. " _I am colonel Pang Hercury, of the Earth Federation forces, Information Combat Center. My comrades and I have taken control of this station. We have taken control of the garrison forces, the life support systems, the linear trains, and the solar power generation system. We have but one objective: to inform the world of the brutality of the A-laws, the federal government's autonomous peace-keeping force, so the public can decide if they are truly in the right._ "

" _Are you aware that under the guise of eliminating anti-government forces, they have massacred millions of people in cold blood? Do you know how many innocent people have been killed in their bid to reorganize the middle east? It's all true. You have been handed a false peace by the Federation's information control, and without knowing it you've all been living in a dictatorship._ "

" _While we are disclosing these facts to the world, I am afraid you lives will be in our hands… go ahead and despise me if you wish, but let me make something perfectly clear: as soldiers, we are sworn to protect the interests and safety of our citizens. And that is why correcting the mistakes of a misguided government and military, is also the sworn duty of a soldier!_ "

Cassie smirked, residing within Veda as she listened to the colonel "Oh, Ron'll like you…" she mused, as she watched the events unfold. The Federation and A-Laws surrounding the elevator, their plans and also the orders to unleash the automatons upon the station, with orders to kill anything that moves - and to hack their cameras in order to make it appear the 'terrorists' were attacking the hostages, while the Machines defended them.

A good plan for an secret dictatorship… unfortunately though, they didn't expect two things: First, was Ron. And Second… was a pissed off AI with admin privileges to Veda.

The Automatons deployed and began their assault - but were largely defeated by the automated defenses of the station. And there it was, the Automatons planting a virus in the systems to feed camera data for editing by Veda, to then give to the federation news networks. ' _Oh the looks on their faces will be PRICELESS._ ' She thought, intercepting the virus and made her own… _minor_ edits to the video feeds.

* * *

"Hercury…" Sergei said, standing in front of his old friend, "I've come as a secret messenger from the Earth Sphere Federation Forces, with message for you, Peng." He sighed. "The Federation government will never submit to the demands you've made. We advise you to surrender immediately."

Peng was silent for a moment, before letting out a short dry chuckle "You've come all the way up here just to tell me that?" He asked.

"The Federation Government's information control system is absolute," Sergei replied, "Your message will never reach the world. Why have you taken innocent civilian hostages-"

Peng rose his hand. "They are not innocent at all," He said, as he walked over to the command deck, looking at the monitors showing the massive number of civilians within the elevator. "Content with their wealth, they accepted the assembly's policies without question. This lead to the government's corruption. It's the folly of these citizens that allowed the rise of an organization like the A-Laws. We must open their eyes, and show them the truth. Even if the lesson is accompanied by pain."

"Isn't the military supposed to protect the interests and safety of the people?" Sergei demanded.

"That's the reason why we're doing this!" Peng countered.

"Just surrender," Sergei pleaded, "If you do it now, there is a chance you can save the lives of your men!"

"The A-Laws won't be that forgiving," He shook his head.

"Hercury…"

"This meeting is over," Peng said, "Return to the surface, and convey my response to headquarters: we are not leaving here, and we will fight to the last man to hold onto it. Take him away."

"Yes sir-" The guards began as they grabbed Sergei, but he batted them away.

"I'm staying right here!" He shouted. "Do you really believe I only came here because I was ordered to? I don't want you to go through another…"

"Colonel!" One of the officers reported, "New Automatons have broken through! They're heading for the gravity block!"

"What?!" Sergei shouted, as he began to run, but the guards stopped him.

"Close the bulkhead doors like we planned!" Peng ordered. "Have the first infantry unit secure the route and guide the citizens onto the trains! Second infantry unit will intercept the automatons!"

The comm pinged before they got a message. " _Need some help there, colonel?_ "

"Where did that come from?!"

A woman's face appeared on the big screen, smirking. " _It came from me. Commander Cassandra Ptolemy, operations officer of the USS_ Ra Cailum."

"The _Ra Cailum_? The massive ship from months ago?" Peng asked.

" _The very same,_ " Cassie nodded, " _I wish to inform you that the_ Ra Cailum _is on station and is ready to send some help to your forces, and we'll help get the civilians evacuated as well. And don't worry: I'll be making sure your message and all the A-Laws dirty little secrets will be coming out today in_ droves _._ "

Peng was a bit caught offguard, before he nodded. "If they can send up, do it please." He said, "Our priority are the civilians no matter what."

" _Reinforcements are incoming,_ " Cassie informed, " _Leave it to us, Colonel._ "

"We have civilian casualties, sir!" An officer shouted.

"What?" Sergei demanded.

"They've programmed the Automatons for kill mode," Peng said, watching the security feeds as the Automatons attacked, looking back at Sergei "Do you see now, Sergei? This is what happens with a misguided government and military!"

* * *

"You know, I love killing these damn things!" Jaden shouted, as he fired a FN P90 PDW at the incoming Automatons - having beamed into the station along with the _Ra Cailum_ MACO team's. "You can be as hardcore as ya like, and it's still PG-13!"

Pulse rifle fire from MACO Team Alpha cut down more of the machines. "Captain, we're moving through the facility. GN particle jamming is increasing."

 _"Give the civilians isolinear tags: subspace comms will cut right through. We're already in the air, en route to interdict A-Laws forces."_

"Understood, sir!"

The _Ra Cailum_ would beam everyone out easily if the coup forces weren't jamming the piss out of conventional sensors.

"What about the _Ptolemaeus_ , sir?"

" _In atmo, engaged with some fancy samurai MS. What the fuck is WRONG with you people?_ "

"Samurai MS?" Jaden asked. "Who would… Ah! That's probably Graham Aker, former Union pilot, now everyone calls him Mr. Bushido, since he's living the old Samurai traditions after he fought against the Gundam's. He _is_ a damn good pilot though." Several AP rounds flew over his head. "HEY I'M TALKING HERE!" He rose up and fired the P90 at the attackers.

" _Whatever… anyways, we'll handle the civilians, you just keep them covered while we beam out anyone that can't get to the trains._ "

"No Problemo!" Jaden said.

* * *

"The first linear train has departed, sir. The second will leave in five minutes."

" _Ra Cailum_ forces are aiding in evacuations using those… transporter beams."

"…you were planning to release the civilians from the very start," Sergei said. "Then what?"

"Like I told you," Peng said, "I'm opening their eyes by having them witness the atrocities of the A-Laws. Even if it's accompanied by pain. That pain will lead to doubts about the federation government, and then the doubts will begin to grow. The government and the military must have responsible citizens in order to function properly. If this is what it takes to open their eyes, I will happily sacrifice myself."

" _You'd do well within Starfleet,_ " Cassie spoke up, as her avatar appeared on the monitor again. " _Heads up Colonel, the Federation is preparing their announcement to air now…_ " She grinned. " _Get ready for all A-Laws to collectively shit their pants._ "

Her avatar vanished, and in its place was a feed from the Federation news network. " _These images were captured from unmanned reconnaissance drones, of the autonomous peace-keeping force inside the africa tower._ " The news lady said, " _Anti-government forces have begun killing citizens… in the…_ " The reporter paused as she looked at the footage… which instead was showing very much _armed_ Automatons gunning down the civilians, while the _Anti-Government_ forces were defending. " _What… what the-?_ "

" _The truth hurts, doesn't it?_ " Cassie's voice came through, across every comm channel within the Earth Sphere. " _You've all been living the life of luxury… you never knew you were living in a dictatorship until the proof was right in front of you now. The A-Laws, your 'peace keeping' force? Let's see now…_ " Images showed A-Laws mobile suits burning Azadistan. " _Massacring of civilian population centers, unlawful arrests, development of weapons of mass destruction intent on using them on aforementioned civilians, as well as completely ignoring Federation command and rules… and_ that _is just skimming the surface._ "

" _Colonel Peng said it himself,_ " the voice continued, as videos of A-Law's atrocities continued to play on an infinite loop. " _It's the people's responsibility to hold the government and military responsible in order to function properly… otherwise,_ this _happens. Now… do with the info as you see fit, people of Earth… do you want a dictatorship that smashes down your rights like Negan smashed Glenn's skull into paste, or are you going to stand up and fucking_ fight? _Your choice, people._ "

"This is the power of the _Ra Cailum_ …"

* * *

Kati stared at the footage. And wasn't pleased. "I thought our duties only involved arrests, not THIS. Get me contacts: I want every A-Laws and regular forces Mobile Suit and ship that isn't blindly following orders!"

"Yes, ma'am! Incoming hail! It's IDed as the _Ra Cailum_!"

Kati blinked in surprise. "Put it through. Let's see what captain Pinkerton has to say."

Ron's face appeared on the main screen. " _Colonel Mannequin. Don't ask how I know your name, that's irrelevant. What I want to know is am I going to have to shoot you or defend you?_ "

Kati shook her head. "No. I'm only a part of the A-LAWS because I followed orders. Or at least, I used to."

Ron raised an eyebrow. " _Oh?_ "

"I'm joining the coup."

" _That answers that._ "

" _Captain, massive energy buildup! Fuck me, it's another Memento Mori array: they're targeting the elevator!_ "

" _Photon torpedoes; target the array!_ "

Kati could only watch as _another_ two glowing balls of destruction raced from the _Ra Calium_ towards the revealed array, ready to repeat what had happened only two days ago.

Only, that didn't exactly happen. This time, the A-LAWs were ready, and opened up on the torpedoes. The torpedoes suddenly started moving, weaving in and out of the damage.

"Can nothing stop them?" The evasive action delayed the torpedoes from reaching their target, just before the array fired, hitting the tower.

Sending tons of debris falling to Earth as the pillar started to auto-purge.

"Fuck me. Transporter room, get the people off the trams! Riza, take us in!"

"WHAT?!"

* * *

"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!" Jaden shouted, as he was beamed directly from out of the station, right into the cockpit of the 0 Gundam Mk-II. "ALL UNITS, WHETHER YOU'RE KATHARON, ESF, CELESTIAL BEING, OR WHATEVER, SHOOT DOWN THAT FUCKING DEBRIS!"

The _Ra Cailum_ dove fast, going at one-quarter impulse. With ANY other helmsman, the ship would crash.

Riza Pinkerton was the goddess of helmspeople.

"Holy fucking shit!"

Even the _Ptolemaeus_ would have problems doing that! "Fire for effect! FIRE EVERYTHING!"

Phaser beams erupted from the ship, from everywhere that had a phaser strip. Jaden was more grateful that the _Ra Cailum_ was on THEIR side as it vaporized pieces of debris or used tractor beams to redirect them into others.

Soon, mobile suits and ship of all factions were firing upwards, joining the aerial dreadnought in defending the millions of lives below.

"Large piece of debris incoming!" Corpsa called out. "It failed to correctly auto-purge!"

"Photon torpedo, low yield!"

The torpedo lanced out and slammed into the large wall, vaporizing most of it and leaving small bits for everyone else to pick off.

"Fuck me, this is a pain in the ass. Tell the _Morningstar_ to prep the Morgan and all of our Mobile Suits for launch. We need every gun out there!"

* * *

Sergei had seen the _Ra Cailum_ in photos. But seeing it up close, flying in atmo…

THAT was terrifying. Majestic, but terrifying.

Soon more MS appeared to begin shooting at debris… well, one was charging in and slashing, with the occasional beam blast at more distant pieces.

A red beam nearly hit his machine before a pink one impacted the source. " _Colonel Smirnov, get your fucking head in the game_!"

Sergi shook his head as a Gundam- the one that had single-handedly _ended_ a A-LAWS battle fleet, he realized with a start- flew by his suit.

 _"Smirnov, answer me!"_

"Captain Pinkerton? You—"

" _A temporary alliance with Celestial Being. Focus!_ "

* * *

The _Ptolemaeus_ then left for space, with a WONDERFUL bit of news.

"You know… I take back every bad thing I said about Starfleet," Sumeragi said, with a wide grin on her face as she downed her flask, watching the Federation news go - as Jaden would call it, _Apeshit_. Cassie had dumped every single last dirty secret the A-Laws and Innovators had been trying to conceal, and the reaction was positively _glorious_.

A-Laws units were either on the run or running back to the army. The world was now on Celestial Being's side.

Sort of. Ron had relayed this to Sumeragi: 'CB tries any of it's old bullshit again, the army will put you down. And if we ever come back and we find out, we'll help.'

Not a threat, exactly. It was a promise.

Gave them more incentive to play nice. "So, Veda's at L2. Are we going to storm the gates, miss Sumeragi?"

"We first have some prep work to do," She said, "Mop up the A-Laws, make sure Ribbons doesn't have any sleeper cells Cassie missed, and then coordinate with the ESF and Katharon… "

"Well, it's nice to finally have some breathing room," Jaden said, walking into the bridge. "Good news: _Ra Cailum_ is going to move Krung Thep, so we won't have to worry about them getting attacked again. Though we'll be on our own until they come back."

"I'm pretty sure we can handle-"

"Ma'am, I'm picking up A-Laws mobile suits approaching, along with Innovade suits!"

"…you jinxed it,"

"Shut up."

* * *

Regene Regetta was not happy. Celestial Being refused to die, the _Ra Cailum_ had ruined EVERYTHING, and now Ribbons was panicking.

Actually, ever since the _Ra Cailum_ had appeared and blown away everything it ran into, he was panicking. It was VERY unsightly.

However, they still had a few trump cards to work with. Of course, this didn't matter to Regene as much as it should

Let Ribbons panic. Let him expend his strength, and possibly sanity, dealing with Celestial Being and the _Ra Cailum_.

It would only make it easier for Regene to take over the Plan in the end.

* * *

"…It was too easy."

"You're Paranoid,"

"We fought this bitch… err, what gender was… gah, you get my idea!" Jaden snapped, looking at the camera feed in the brig. "We've fought Innovades far too much, this battle was too easy - she _let_ herself get captured."

"Why would she do that?"

"Why else? Probably to steal the 00 Gundam and the 0 Raiser," Jaden said. "Ribby probably thinks the 00 is gonna be his only trump card against the _Ra Cailum_ now."

"We'll ask for the _Ra Cailum_ to send—"

A shower of light signalled the arrival of their least favorite ally: Ronald Pinkerton. "That was tingly. You're lucky we planted that homing beacon on the ship, otherwise I'd be in space."

"…When did you plant—"

"The last time the _Ra-horakhty_ was on board. It's phase-shifted, so you didn't notice it. Now, where's the prisoner? I'd like to talk with the asshole."

"In the brig," Jaden started, "Acting all calm and collected…. _Please_ kick her ass… or his ass or… goddamnit why are Innovade genders so fucking weird… "

"Try the Undine."

"What's wrong with them?"

"They have SIX sexes."

Jaden stared agape. "What is WRONG with your universe?!"

"Could say the same for yours. Now, I'm a master of screwing with heads. In the end, I win. If you excuse me..."

Ron left the room, all while Jaden sighed, before smirking. "Oh… today's going to be _interesting_." He said, hitting the 'Record' button.

* * *

Revive watched as the door opened, allowing Ron to enter. "The famed Captain Pinkerton, I presume." He simply sat down before staring into the Innovade's eyes. Regene blinked. Ron didn't.

THEN it began as she stared into his eyes. The madness in his eyes entered Regene's mind.

* * *

"He's not going to break her."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! GET HIM AWAY FROM ME!"

The Ptolemy pilots stared at the closed door before looking back at a grinning Jaden.

"I fucking _love_ these guys," He chuckled. "Let's keep e'm together for a bit longer… then we'll give him/her a break."

"NO! NO!"

"What is he DOING in there?!"

Gunfire was heard nearby, making them panic. "NOW what?" The pilots ran off in the direction of the shots, finding Anew Returner holding a gun on Mileina. "Oh, great."

Anew saw the pilots, then placed the caseless gun to the young woman's head. "Release Revive Revival. Now."

Jaden groaned, facepalming "Of course… a fucking sleeper agent." He muttered, activating his communicator. "Oi Ron! Could you stop torturing the guy/gal and come out here?"

" _Hey! I'm having fun here!_ "

"And I've got Anew pointing a gun at Milena's head here demanding Revive's release."

" _Ooooooh. Hostage situation!_ "

Setsuna and Lockon shared a look. "Why do I get the feeling he's going to do something everyone's going to hate?"

"Because that's what he does?"

Anew pressed deep enough to leave a bruise on her head, just before Ron arrived, Revive's arms held behind his back while Ron held a type-2 assault phaser to his head. "I've got a hostage too!"

Anew simply stared at him. "You're insane."

"So they say! Hehehehehehehhehehe!"

Jaden glanced between the two hostage takers. "So…. how does this work?" He asked.

"Let Revive go, or she dies." Anew growled.

Ron seemed as if he were thinking about it "Hmm… Nah," He said, before pointing the phaser at her, firing it - hitting Mileina. Everyone - save for Jaden who knew she was just stunned - gawked at Ron.

"…SHIT!" Anew shouted before dropping Milaina as she ran out.

Ron fired at Anew before Revive shoved his elbow into Ron's gut. That did… nothing.

"That tickled." Revive scrambled to get away, getting out of Ron's grip while Feldt checked Milenia. "She's… she's alive. Unconscious, but alive."

"The fuck did you expect? It's set to heavy stun. What, you expect me to kill my own?"

Sumeragi groaned, "Lock down the ship, and secure 00 and the Raiser!" She ordered.

"I can't believe Anew-"

"She's a sleeper Agent, Lockon," Jaden spoke up. "Knowing what we do about those Innovades, she's probably being controlled by Ribbons."

"Meaning I can't do my usual thing and just vaporize her. No, that would be _wrong_. The Dominion made me do it, the Borg made me do it, Ribbons fucking Almark made me do it; I'm getting tired of the FUCKING COPOUTS!" Ron shouted.

* * *

"Get away, get away, get away, get away, get away, get away, get away, get away, GET AWAY!" Revive had seen madness.

Ronald Pinkerton was living madness.

'I get to 00, I can rid myself of the crazy!'

He didn't realize what was waiting for him, though.

He jumped into the 0 Raiser's cockpit, narrowly dodging a blue beam of death. "Hello!" Revive actually screamed before shutting the cockpit and forcing his way out of the ship.

"Ok, time to go home." Revive muttered.

" _Really, boyo? You think we didn't know you'd pull that? You guys are OBSESSED with the twin drive. Really, you should've tried infiltrating the_ Ra Cailum _: would've been easier._ "

"You can't stop us!" Revive shouted as the 00 Gundam and Raiser launched… only to halt dead in their tracks by an invisible field. "What the-?!"

" _Oh yeah! Did we mention Starfleet has TRACTOR BEAMS?!_ " Jaden laughed, as the _Ra-Horakhty_ zoomed overhead, having trapped the two craft in its field.

"What DON'T you have?!"

"The ability to remove stupid from the gene pool." Ron stated.

Revive then decided to be rather spiteful and shoot up the cockpit with an assault rifle. "If we can't have it, you can't use it either!" His machine then launched from the _Ptolemaeus,_ piloted by Anew.

* * *

"Can't you beam her out?!"

" _Getting a lock on her from a predictable moving target is easy, even with the GN particle interference, but that thing's going to be accelerating and decelerating randomly. I'll try to compensate, but they're going to get away_."

"Meh, as long as we get the 00 back, and the 0 Raiser," Jaden said, "Normally that kind of damage would take time to build..."

"... _if you didn't have friends in Starfleet?_ "

Jaden chuckled "Bingo," he said. "Though we still need to get Anew… _alive_ if at all possible, I'm pretty sure we can oust the Sleeper-cell half of her."

" _I'll work on the transporter. How's Milly_?"

"Recovering. Your phasers are nasty."

" _Disruptors are worse. Even on low power, often their victims die. Pinkerton out._ "

"So, we're screwed." Lockon stated." How could he just let Anew go?! All that fancy technology and he just LET HER GO?!"

"We're gonna get her back, Lockon," Jaden spoke, looking at the Gundam Meister. "If we have a chance to save her, you bet your ass that Ron's going to help, especially if it helps us fuck over the Innovators. Just stay calm, relax - and get ready in Cherubim. "

"Right. Goddamn it."

* * *

The Tempest was being readied for long-range beaming to the _Ptolemaeus_ , her pilot being ready for a similar beaming to the _Ra-horakhty_. "You'll do fine. It's just a 60K beaming. It's not like that 200K one where we had to beam Ron onto that planet in the Delta quadrant."

Takeshi looked at his wife dryly. "Too many things can go wrong, Luna."

"You'll be FINE. Good news, we're not sending the Morgan."

"After what Ron pulled last time? THANK GOD."

* * *

" _The big ship is gone, all we have to deal with now is two small ships!_ " Hilling Care stated, " _We can handle a smaller ship!_ "

" _Don't underestimate that fucking thing!_ " Hilling blinked at how the normally stoic Revive shouted, " _Those… those people are fucking monsters! Forget the 00, forget the_ Ptolemy _! SINK THAT SHIP!_ "

Hilling blinked, but complied. "Copy that. Locking target."

Her Mobile suit locked onto the small shuttle, charging the Cannon to overload. "Releasing condensed GN particles!"

A ginormous beam of concentrated particles lanced out to eliminate the _Ra-Horakhty_. Unfortunately, her master was a VERY good pilot.

"You people suck! I've flown against drunken Orions better than you! And they sucked!"

The comm then opened up, the green haired Ribbons Almark appearing on the screen. " _Captain Pinkerton_."

"Ribby. Is there something I can do for you? Kinda busy: world to save, people to send home. That sort of thing. You're not even on my list of _important_ things."

Ribbon's eyes twitched. " _I am willing to make a… deal with you, Pinkerton._ "

"What kind?"

" _If you and your people leave, I promise you no harm will come to you._ " He informed, " _This is not your fight, Pinkerton._ "

"Not my fight." Ron began chuckling darkly. Ribbons actually backed away from the screen. "Not my fight?! You should have thought of that before those A-Laws assholes fired on the _Ra Cailum!_ I wouldn't've sided with CB if that were the case. Hell, even _afterward_ a simple fucking apology would've gotten you a free pass!"

Ribbons tugged at his collar nervously. " _Then...what set you on this path_?"

"Memento Mori. See, I don't do with assholes that use weapons of mass destruction on civilians. So, yeah. You done goofed. So I hope you live to pilot that machine you're making! _Because I'm going to ram my fist into your face so hard **that your MS will shatter like glass and put a fucking hole in REALITY ITSELF**_!" He then began to cackle madly.

" _You're INSANE_!"

"Really, you JUST figured that out?!" Ron replied, flashing a manic grin with just the right amount of crazy in his eyes. "I thought that was common knowledge!"

Ribbons cried out in rage, before the comms shut off.

"Still got it!"

* * *

"I will MURDER that FUCKING SON OF A BITCH! I will rip out his heart, then tear out his brain! WITH MY BARE HANDS!"

Ribby THEN proceeded to take a hammer to the table.

Don't ask us how he got it: anime's weird that way.

* * *

Ron lazily rolled the _Ra-horakhty_ over another particle blast. "LEARN TO AIM! Now to find Anew. I'm a romantic, so I like to see the couples get together. Now, where are you Newy?"

A flurry of beam blasts announced the arrival of the GNZ-007 Gaddess, piloted by Anew. She closed in, drawing a beam sword and a GN Blade. "DIE!"

The swords clashed against the shields before Ron gunned the engines and raced away. "You know, I usually kill people that try to kill me, or touch my shuttle, but I'll make an exception. After all, you're being brainwashed."

He activated the synaptic interface, allowing him to fly the shuttle with his mind, while making the necessary alterations to the sensors.

"Got a partial lock, but I want all of her." A GN beam flew too close to the shuttle, much to Ron's annoyance. "Oi, CB! Do your fucking job and cover me!"

Long range shots from the Cherudim glanced Anew's machine, managing to take off one of the legs. Anew went to engage the machine, but Ron drew her attention back again by taking off the Gaddess' right arm.

"Ga!" Anew deployed her Fangs to deal with Lockon and his Bits while she dealt with Ron.

"What was that 21st Century meme? Oh, right." He pushed a button before a shower of light disposed Anew in the rear compartment before he spun around.

"Welcome aboard." He pointed his assault phaser at her before firing it at her.

The blue beam snapped out and slammed into Anew, sending her stumbling to the floor. Ron put another shot into her to make sure she stayed down. "Ah, stun setting. Gotta love it. Lockon, I've got your girlfriend."

" _I can tell."_ The pilot replied - now free from the GN Fangs- turned to fire on Hilling, taking out her weapon in the process. " _Just get Ribbons' stuff out of her."_

"Will do."

* * *

"Damn it, he's got Returner! Fall back! FALL BACK!"

"Thank you, GOD!" The two GNZ-series machines fled as fast as they could, Revive's taking a phaser beam to the head.

"People call me a troll when I do shit like that." Ron mused. "Anew's onboard. And pissed. VERY pissed. I had to pull out my fluffy cuffs."

Jaden guffawed. "'Fluffy cuffs'?"

Ron appeared on a submonitor, showing Anew trying to kill him animatedly.

Wearing… fluffy cuffs.

"Comfortable fluffiness, tritanium construction. She ain't slipping out." Ron grunted as Anew tried to beat him over the head.

"...You're weird."

"Insanity is what I do. As soon as she's recovered, we're going to L2. No more games. No more bullshit. It's time to RIP RIBBY'S HEART OUT."

Jaden shook his head, but continued to smirk "No complaints here," he said grinning. "I'll make sure everything is all set and ready."

* * *

 **117Jorn: Well everyone… I think I know what time it is…**

 **Takeshi Yamato: ...what time is-**

 **117Jorn: ITS THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! DODODO DO, DODODO DO DO, DODODO DO, DODODO DO DO DO DOOO DODO DOOOOO DODO DOO DOOO DOOO DOO DOOO DOOO DOOOOOOOOO DODO DOOOOOOOOOO!**

 **Ron the True Fan: ...Really? As you've gathered, readers, the end of the Gundam 00 arc is closing in. One final effort and Ribby will suffer. Greatly. But it's not enough. NEVER enough.**

 **117Jorn: Its a classic! Don't judge me! But yes… 00 comes to its close, but as you can guess the journey of the _Ra Cailum_ is far from over! **

**Ja Ne!**


	9. Chapter 9

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

 **2312 AD**

* * *

" _This is Captain Pinkerton. We've spent the last two months fucking with these assholes, and frankly, I'm tired of pussyfooting around. It's time to go for the kill. We're going to L2. We're going to tear Ribbons Almark's heart out. We're going to teach him what it's like to FUCK with the United Federation of Planets! To fuck with the_ Ra Cailum _! ALL HANDS, STAND TO BATTLE STATIONS!_ "

"He sure knows how to rally a crowd," Jaden chuckled, as the _Ra Cailum,_ and the newly completed _Firestorm_ (Takeshi would be grinning into the next universe) began moving towards L2. As the ESF and Katharon forces mobilized themselves, the _Ra Cailum_ would move ahead and make sure Ribbons hasn't set up any more surprises for them.

The kilometer long superdreadnought became the rallying symbol for their forces. Jaden couldn't blame them.

It was a massive, OP starship.

"This is Colonel Mannequin: our forces are en route, Captain." Kati Mannequin, Sergei Smirnov, and Pang Hercury led three ESF army and defected A-LAW (who bore the signs of hasty repaints) battle groups.

" _Make sure they know which people to shoot. Your people seem to have that problem._ "

"And he still can't resist being a troll." Jaden shook his head, grinning. "Well, he's got the right. Alright, Celestial Being, let's go kick some ass!"

* * *

Ribbons had finally dealt with his traitorous subordinate with the best way to kill someone: having someone blow their head off.

It was no bazooka, but it did the job.

With Regene gone, now he could focus on the _Ra Cailum_ and the ESF. He knew they were coming, and he wasn't going to pull any punches against them. He needed to focus everything on defeating Starfleet and their 'friends'. He didn't even care about the fact that Wang Liu Mei had abandoned his cause, they already knew where Veda was anyways! Still didn't stop him from sending a small unit to track her down.

"I need to cripple that ship. Yes. Then I can take all of its' secrets for myself. That power should only be in the hands of the Innovators."

* * *

 **CBS-74 _Ptolemaios II_**

* * *

" _So far, the only things we've encountered are the random patrol units. They fled at the first sight. Guess A-Laws learned their lesson_."

"Or they're drawing you in for something bigger and heavier." Sumeragi advised.

Ron shrugged. " _Kujo, I've faced down Iconian_ Iaidon _-Class dreadnoughts with three times the firepower of the_ Ra Cailum _. I blew them to hell. Believe me, the bigger they are, in numbers or mass, the harder their asses fare when they run into my ship. Besides, I still have a few tricks I haven't showed you._ "

" _Hey Ron!_ " Jaden's face appeared on the monitor. " _You mind if the_ Morningstar _splits off for a minute? Something came up, need to take care of it ASAP._ "

"What's that?"

" _We got a call from an old friend of Celestial Being - Wang Liu Mei,_ " he informed. " _She was our financial backer, though she worked for the Innovades for a while, she decided to defect back to our side, sent a message that she has Veda's location._ "

"We already know where Veda is."

" _True, but it's the thought that counts, plus she did help us get Nena off of Earth when her brothers were killed, and overall she's a nice person, if not a bit misguided,_ " Jaden shrugged. " _We just need to stop by Eclipse colony, pick her up, and we'll be back before you know it._ "

"Do it. I'll send the _Khepri_ to back you up. More firepower is not bad."

" _Ron, your ship is terrifying ENOUGH. We'll be fine._ "

"Condom rule. You're getting it regardless." Better safe than sorry. He'd send the ship anyways.

" _Fine. See them soon, I guess._ "

* * *

 **Eclipse colony**

* * *

Wang Liu Mei was starting to get really tired of this bullshit.

She thought siding with the Innovades with Ribbons was the best idea, that there was no way that Celestial Being could win against them even with her funding.

And then that massive dreadnought appeared, turned the entire Earth Sphere on its head, and suddenly the A-Laws and Innovades were getting their collective asses handed to them.

Named after an Egyptian village, the _Ra Cailum_ tore into A-Laws, blew apart both Memento Mori arrays, then destroyed the debris threatening the people living below the tower. There was no way the Innovators, A-Laws or even Celestial Being could stop this juggernaut.

Worse, CB teamed up with the superdreadnought. Ribbons, understandably, went just a little more insane.

…Ok, COMPLETELY insane.

So with some help from Regene, she was able to get Veda's coordinates, and was attempting to get them sent to Celestial Being… but unfortunately it seemed Ribbons was onto her, having sent some of those clones of Devine Noa and Bring Stability, using new types of Gundam's she had never seen before.

While they lost the Trinity mothership, they were able to escape death by entering the incomplete Eclipse colony. But she knew they were probably right behind her now. The last thing she was able to do was send a message to Celestial Being, informing them she had the coordinates to Veda.

' _Will they even trust me?_ ' She thought, cradling her side as she and Hong continued through the interior of the colony. ' _Knowing that ship, if they infiltrated Veda's systems like Ribbons raves, they might know I help build that…_ thing.' She admitted she funded the construction of the Memento Mori, but after seeing just how much sheer destruction that thing caused to the Orbital Elevator, all the lives that could've been lost if the _Ra Cailum_ hadn't of been there…

"No one has arrived at the designated point yet," Hong reported. "My Mistress, do you really believe Celestial Being will come?"

"…there's no way I can be for certain," Liu Mei said, "But if they don't get here soon… the world will belong to the Innovades if Starfleet can't stop Ribbons… "

"Doesn't Starfleet have weapons-"

"Stop asking all these questions and think for yourself!" Mei snapped. "It's because of your flaws that I was forced to be the head of the Wang family when our parents DIED!"

Wang recoiled slightly, but she wasn't done with her rant. "Your inability to be the head of the family lead to my life being twisted like this!" she shouted. "That's the real reason I want to see the world reformed! I don't give a damn about the reputation of the Wang dynasty, their wealth, or anything! I wanted a _normal_ life, dammit! None of this bureaucratic, aristocratic bullshit where I have to act perfectly in this way, flawless in that way! Hell from what I've heard, I'd rather be with STARFLEET! They don't care about wealth or any of that!"

"I just… I just didn't want any of THIS!" She screamed.

Starfleet seemed the best option. From what she gathered from Jaden's reports, they had a moneyless economy. The only thing they cared about was knowledge, learning and understanding. They weren't perfect, but they tried.

Static erupted from her helmet's comm. " _Gūniang Wang? This is Lt Commander Sonja Henderson of the USS_ Ra Cailum _. Are you alright?_ "

Wang blinked. Not just by the fact they used her radio, but by the use of the common 'gūniang', which in Chinese simply meant 'miss'. No honors, no nothing. She was just another person.

A MASSIVE relief. "Commander, I have to keep this brief. I'm being hunted down."

" _We know. We're on our way. Hold your position: we'll beam you out soon._ "

"J-Just hurry!" she shouted. "Ribbons sent people after-" Suddenly the doors opened, as several clones of Bring and Divine appeared from the Doorway.

"You will pay for betraying Ribbons." Was all the lead clone stated, before aiming his gun towards Liu Mei.

"Mistress!"

* ** _BANG_** *

Liu Mei blinked, before realizing that her brother had just jumped and taken the bullet for her. "H-Hong Long?"

Hong grunted, as the Innovade clones continued to fire - using his strength to push Liu Mei towards the exit. "L-Liu Mei…" he grunted, as he pushed her out the door. "Live on!"

"BROTHER!" She shouted, before he sealed the door behind her, and all she heard from the other end was a torrent of gunfire.

She sobbed. She never treated her brother like anything remotely resembling family. Why would he…

Light surrounded her before she reappeared in full gravity on a strange ship. "We got her! _Morningstar_ , this is _Khepri_ : we've got her!"

" _Copy that. STILL fucking weirded out by that transporter thing._ "

"Be lucky we reconfigured the sensors to cut through GN particle interference, Jaden. Anything out there I need to know about?"

" _We've got company! A dozen mobile suits and… ah shit, looks like mass produced 1.5 Gundam's, given the Innovade touch,_ " Jaden stated. " _Well… this will be interesting._ "

"We could get Ron."

" _NO! FUCK NO!_ "

Liu Mei did not want to know.

* * *

Setsuna F Seiei's stoic facade was put to the test. The one man whom he had never wanted to see again was facing him.

In a mockery of 00.

While yes, the Masurao, refit into the Susanoo, looked nothing like the 00 Gundam, it was a close-in machine.

It was insulting. Not to mention the man was getting ANNOYING to listen to. Setsuna began wondering why he didn't just make like Pinkerton and just kill him already.

Part of him even considered applying that one saying Yamato liked to quote - the one about there not being such a thing as 'overkill', only 'open fire' and 'reload'.

" _It's just you and me now, Gundam!_ " Bushido shouted, as the two machines clashed. " _Show me what you can do now!_ "

"It's over! The world is against you now!"

" _It doesn't matter! You destroyed my life as a Flag Fighter, you killed my men and my pride! Now you will PAY!_ "

The Susanoo engaged its Trans-Am, bashing against the 00 Raiser, and Setsuna was forced into Trans-Am himself, as the two high-performance mobile suits bashed and clashed against one another, leaving trails of sparks and GN particles in their wake.

" _Finally! Now you die, Gundam, and my purpose will be fulfilled!_ "

"Your purpose?! Why am I suddenly surrounded by insane people?!"

" _Insane?! Please!_ "

"Pinkerton is absolutely insane, his CREW is just as mad, YOU'RE insane, EVERYONE'S fucking crazy, and I've had ENOUGH!"

And as the two clashed, the GN Particles spread, concentrated, and as their minds connected in the particle concentration, the process of Setsuna's Innovation, begun back in that struggle for his life against a berserking Ron, finally came to completion.

Setsuna blinked in the psionic void. "I see it now. This-this is why Aeolia Shenberg created Celestial Being. Created GN drives."

Bushido looked at the manifestation of Setsuna in the void. "What is this?"

"The true goal of Celestial Being," Setsuna said. "The armed interventions were to prepare for this. Aeolia's goal was to guide humanity's reformation… so… therefore… I am going to change and reform myself."

"Reformation?" Graham asked, "Are you saying that's the ultimate mystery which you've mastered?"

Graham thought back, about how the rivalry began, how he once called him twisted - yet he was just like him, a man who knew nothing but fighting… which is why he desires nothing more, than to fight him.

The Psionic void faded, as the battle came to be once more as the two machines clashed in Trans-Am "For the ultimate victory!" Graham shouted, as his swords collided with Setsuna's own.

" _All you desire is Victory?_ "

"What else is there?!"

" _Isn't it obvious?!_ " Setsuna shouted, as he combined his two swords together, " _A tomorrow that links us to the future!_ "

He charged at the Susanoo, throwing his sword forward grazing against its armor - however the Susanoo prepared to cleave the gundam in half. " _Apologies for taking your life!_ " He brought down the sword upon him… only for Setsuna's gundam to catch it with its bare hands. " _You… you caught my blade?!_ "

Setsuna the snapped the blade in half within his grasp. " _This is my way of fighting!_ " He backed off as he drew out a pair of beam sabers, and proceeded to stab both of the shoulders of the Susanoo, tearing apart the armor… and revealing the Union Flag head underneath the machine.

The face of Captain Pinkerton appeared on a submonitor. " _Are you done playing around? We have shit to do. The_ Ra Cailum's _already engaged a fuckton of A-Laws ships and I am literally one step away from going out there in the Morgan to settle this personally. So unless you want to see me go on another rampage which this universe will not survive, land on the_ Morningstar _and prepare for warp speed_."

" _Come on Setsuna!_ " Jaden called on the Comms. " _Don't wanna keep them waiting! I know you wanna kill Ribbons as much as I do!_ "

" _Fight me… young man…_ " Setsuna looked at the open cockpit of Susanoo, where Graham stood. " _Cut me down… and seize the victory you richly deserve!_ "

For a moment, Setsuna thought of finishing him off… however he deactivated his weapons, and the Trans-Am. " _What… why? Why won't you finish me off?!_ "

"I… will live," Setsuna said, "I will live, and seize tomorrow. That is my way of fighting. And you… must also fight to live." With his peace said, he turned the 00 Gundam around, and sped towards the _Morningstar_ to regroup with the others.

Graham gaped. And promptly felt like a fucking idiot.

Which everyone knows he is: during Season 2, he went full retard.

* * *

Ron was one unexpected thing from going Nero on their asses. A-Laws was not only getting desperate, they were getting annoying. "This was more fun when they had more guns. Now it's just tedious. When the hell are the _Ptolemaios_ and _Morningstar_ going to get here? I'm getting tired—" A GNX rammed into the _Ra Cailum's_ shields. "OF THAT HAPPENING!"

" _Morningstar_ is 90 seconds out, same with _Khepri_. Takeshi's having too much fun with the _Firestorm_. _Ptolemaios_ is 3 minutes behind us with the rest of the fleet." One of the sensors ensigns reported.

Ron laughed at that last part. "Most advanced ship in the CB fleet and she's the slowest. Serves them right. Corpie, kill those _Bakials_ before they ram us."

Corspa complied, however, as the cruisers died from precision shots, a strange… gas rapidly spread outward to encompass the _Ra Calium._

Ron blinked. "They're attacking us… with _gas?_ Analysis."

"It's an antiparticle field. It'll make GN particles useless as weapons."

"What about our phasers?"

It'll reduce their effectiveness by 30, 45%."

"Fuck me. They want to make me waste torpedoes on minnows."

"I could divert auxiliary or warp power to compensate for the deficiency." Corpsa threw out.

"Do it."

* * *

Ribbons wanted to scream. So he did. "Incompetent humans! MUST I do everything myself?!"

He did, it seemed. As soon as the smoke dissipated, he was going to… what was that 21st Century meme?

Shoop da Whoop?

* * *

"I get the feeling someone's a-chargin' a laser and pointing it in our general direction."

"Why do you know these things?!" Someone shouted.

"Because that's my job!"

* * *

Jaden watched as the ship dropped out of warp, the rest of the fleet finally catching up to the _Ra Cailum_. "Well, Ron's gotten busy," He mused as he looked at the chaos ahead, "Let's not let Starfleet have all the fun people! Jaden Takeo, 0 Gundam Mk-II, launching!" The Mobile Suit was quickly launched from the _Morningstar_ , quickly followed by the other MS of the starship as they raced off into battle.

"About time. The captain's getting pissed off."

"Well, you try going from one lagrange point to the next!"

Jaden hacked a GNX III in half before alarms began going off. "Energy spike!"

" _Someone's shooping da whoop! Jaden, latch onto our hull: our shields won't survive that beam!_ "

"What, it's that powerful?"

 _"Our shields are at 57%: at full power, we'd tank that no problem. Corpie!"_

 _"Yes sir!"_

" _As soon as Jaden's got full mag-seal… Deploy armor_." Ron ordered dramatically.

"Everyone HANG ON!" Jaden shouted, as he and his team all latched onto the outer hull of the _Ra Cailum_ \- just as a lance of energy streamed out from the _Celestial Being_ towards the _Ra Cailum_.

* * *

Ribbons watched as the _Ra_ _Cailum_ was covered in the _Celestial Being's_ GN mega particle cannon's beam of doom, seemingly destroyed. "I FINALLY FUCKED YOU, Pinkerton!"

* * *

"Shields failing!"

"Armor deployed! Dropping shields and recharging the emitters!"

* * *

The beam passed, Ribbons finally happy. Before he noticed something.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

It was covered in grey armor with no markings. But that shape, that size…

It was the _Ra Cailum._

" _You fucked up, Ribby,_ " Ron stated, promises of death clearly evident in his voice.

"What the fuck will it take to KILL YOU?!"

" _More than what you've got!_ " The armor faded away after a moment and Ribbons got the feeling that it wasn't a time limit.

He simply didn't _need_ it.

As was proven when the _Firestorm_ swooped in from out of nowhere and blew apart the beam cannon with a barrage of cannon fire.

* * *

Jaden blinked as the… armor covering him went away. "What was _that_? AND HOW DO I MAKE ONE?!"

Ron chuckled. " _That was ablative energy armor, my friend. It is basically what the name entails; energy ablates away the attack. It's effective even against the Borg. We lose the ability to fire phasers in the process, but when you got torpedoes…_ " He left the rest of the sentence unsaid.

"…I said it before, I say it again," Jaden shook his head. "Starfleet is the _definition_ of Overkill."

" _Seeing as we got_ this _technology from the future…_ "

Jaden _stared_ as the _Ra Cailum_ began moving.

"Time travel. You have time travel."

 _"And a rule against it! TALLY HO, RIBBY! HAVE AT THEE!"_

* * *

Mari whooped in main engineering. "I LOVE this ship!"

Mitod stared at her acting deputy. "Everyone hates this ship! Why the hell did you _ask_ to be assigned here?!"

Mari suddenly deflated. "Uhhhh… It's an _Odyssey?"_

Sonja was not fooled. "Mhh. Not buying it."

The _Ra Cailum_ shook again. "NOW WHAT?!" Sonja yelled as a console nearby overloaded, causing her to flinch back and shield her eyes.

 _"More kamikazes!"_ Ron reported. _"I hate suicide machines! Screw this, tell the_ Morningstar _I want my Mobile Suit readied for launch!"_

"Oh, fuck, he's mad."

Mari grinned. "I LIKE it when he gets mad!"

"You're as crazy as his sisters are!"

* * *

Cassie smirked. It was time. She had done all the damage that she needed to do, and it was time she left Veda's innerworkings and found her… new self. For the briefest moment, everything went dark for Cassie… before she suddenly began to experience things she had never felt before. Touch, scent, taste… her own heartbeat. She coughed violently, as she dropped from the vat tube, which contained her now physical human body - created thanks to Veda's knowledge on Innovades.

Cassie looked down and blushed for the first time. "Well… I _might_ want to dress before I head out. Don't want Ron and everyone else to have a nosebleed. Although, knowing Ron, he'd just kill everyone who saw."

* * *

The Gaga force-which was an entire _fleet_ of mass produced kamikaze mobile suits- was swarming en-masse, doing everything from shooting to ramming the superdreadnought in order to try to kill it. As such, the ship's phasers were working overtime, trying to keep the suicidal MS away.

Suddenly, dozens of the Gagas disappeared as a MS swooped in, one feared by _all_ on the battlefield.

"HELLO ASSHOLES!" Ron yelled over wideband as the Morgan killed dozens of the enemy MS. "GUESS WHO'S BACK?!"

" _Gaga Force, KILL THAT MOBILE SUIT_!" Ribbons yelled, desperate for _some_ way to kill the insane captain.

As one, _all_ of the GNZ-004 Gagas turned towards Ron and activated Trans-Am.

Ron sweatdropped. "I made them angry. Yayyy…"

He activated Trans-Am and raced backwards, firing at the stream of enemies.

"I am SERIOUSLY pissed off! I've had to deal with assholes for the past three months and NOW we're at an end! Piss off and die already!" The rifle fired off long streams of GN particle infused plasma, vaporizing dozens of Gagas.

( **BGM: Fighter's Honor - Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy** )

" _You are becoming an ANNOYANCE, Captain!_ " Ribbons shouted.

"Really, I thought I'd be at the rank of 'major nuisance' or 'supreme pain in your ass'. How do I qualify for those?"

 _"FUCK OFF! JUST DIE!"_

Ron full out _giggled_. "I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY!"

The new Starfleet-modified GN Bits that Jaden had managed to install deployed off the Morgan, and Ron synced them with his guns. Charging them to max, he fired.

A ultra-large beam shot out from the Morgan and tore into the Gaga fleet, severely reducing their numbers and leaving Ron in the clear for now.

Ron grinned, but then a proximity alarm went off. A group of Gagas actually had some sense and decided to flank Ron. He managed to shoot the first, but another one flew the cloud and grappled the Morgan.

"Get… OFF!" Ron grunted.

Before he or the Innovade could do anything, a single beam shot speared the Gaga through its cockpit, and Ron kicked it away before it could explode.

" _Need some help Ron?"_

The 0 Gundam II and the rest of the _Morningstar_ team arrived to give Ron help against the kamikazes, lining up, pouring fire into the swarm and managing to keep them back.

"There is a literal fuckton of these things." Jaden said, blasting apart countless suits. "There's no way he had that much time to design them and equip them with Trans-Am."

"There is. He designed them first, THEN equipped them with that limit remover. If Veda wasn't inside that fucking thing, I'd torp it to death."

Sumeragi appeared on a submonitor. " _Captain, we need a clear entry route. Can you give us time to sear—_ "

"There's a fucking docking port at coordinates 42-89-48. We'll give you cover, but move fast!"

A massive red beam was fired in their direction and Ron used the transformation mode to dart away while the others broke off.

" _Well, now, I can't let you guys ruin my employer's fun, no, can I?_ " The machine was a near clone of Throne Zwei, only red.

"GNW-2000. I presume you're the fucking merc, Saachez?"

 _"You got it in one, Captain!"_

Ron wasn't in the mood for the war junkie. "Nena, you want revenge. Go get him." A pink beam nearly hit the Arche, fired from Cherudim Gundam.

 _"He's mine!"_ Lockon shouted.

"Fucking tagteam the bastard; just KILL HIM!"

The Drei and Cherudim descended on the Arche and tore at it like a pack of starved wolves.

Meanwhile, the rest of the _Ptolemaios_ team continued fighting their way through the enemy forces, helping to clear a path for their mothership.

"4 years of work, all coming down to this! Let's get this done and over with!"

A multicolored beam fired from a Gadelaza nearly hit Seravee. "You're not getting anywhere near Ribbons!" Hilling yelled. "We won't let you!"

"Great, them again. They're just going to keep getting in the way." Setsuna dismissed.

Fire support came in in the form of the _Firestorm_ as it unloaded its weapons at the Gadelaza.

"FUCK!" Hilling dodged with everything she had, losing multiple pieces to her suit.

"I guess the ENTIRE _Ra Cailum_ crew are all trolls." Tieria mused.

* * *

Ribbons muttered under his breath, mostly about Starfleet, trolls, and something about Revive being completely fucking nuts.

It was time he went on the offensive. He needed to kill Pinkerton himself, it seemed.

Luckily, his personal machine was complete and ready to go. He would destroy Pinkerton, then Starfleet, and then the rest of Celestial Being.

The station shook again from phaser fire. "What will it take to DESTROY THAT SHIP?!" He'd fired missiles at it, used kamikazes, fired his big ass laser at it, WHY WOULD IT NOT DIE?!

At this moment, Veda had decided to eject the 'corrupted terminal' from the networks to preserve the core.

Ribby wouldn't know it until it was too late.

And even as Ribbons entered his machine and launched, the Seravee, taking advantage of cover from the _Firestorm_ , landed in another part of the fortress, Tieria exiting his machine to find and reclaim Veda.

Their allies were insane. But they did save them the trouble.

* * *

"You know, fancy robots are nice, but a LITTLE impractical in dealing with a fuckon of assholes."

" _Shut the fuck up and DIE!_ " Hiling fired her cannon at the Morgan, but Ron used his superior reflexes to dodge before hacking the weapon from the machine and removing the escape pod/cockpit.

"And where do you think YOU'RE going, young lady?"

" _The fuck away from you! GET AWAY FROM ME!_ "

She tried to run and get clear, but Ron's machine was faster than her escape pod.

"Oh, no, you are staying RIGHT HERE." Ron grinned as he shoved the Morgan's face in front of the pod's cameras.

" _RIBBONS! HELP ME!_ "

Ron shook his head. "Lady, he doesn't give a fuck. You're a POW now. Takeshi, beam our new prisoner into your brig. CB can deal with her later."

" _Understood, Boss,_ " Takeshi replied, as Hiling disappeared from inside the escape pod to reappear in the _Firestorm_ 's brig.

"Now for the not so fun part. Ribby, ribby, ribby~ Come and fucking get me!"

" _If you insist._ " A shower of red and orange nearly hit Ron's machine. Reacting, he transformed into MA mode and flew like hell, sighting in on a heavy artillery unit.

"Wow, pulling out your own machine. Does it come in black?"

" _Your banter annoys me, Pinkerton,_ " Ribby ranted. " _Today, I will be victorious and the Earth—_ "

"Fuck's sake man, shut the fuck up and die already." Ron said flippantly, pulling a perfect Jamaican accent that had nothing to do with his cybernetics.

Ribby screamed in outrage, and opened fire, blasting Ron with just about everything he had.

Ron's answer to this was to fly around while singing - rather poorly - the Soviet national anthem.

Now, Ron has a good singing voice, he's just doing this by choice.

" _GAH! DIE ALREADY!_ " Ribbons screamed, spittle flying everywhere.

"You and all of my enemies know how you feel. Everyone hates it when I sing."

Ribby couldn't form a coherent reaction to this, and proceeded to transform his machine into a close combat mode which seemed to be a Gundam, charging in screaming, frothing from the mouth.

"You suck." Ron transformed into MS mode and limboed under the seeming Gundam. "You can do better than that."

" _I am perfection itself! I am_ the _Innovator! I will—_ "

A pink beam from 00 Raiser blew off both binders. "Ribbons Almark, you need to just shut up and die," Setsuna stated, frankly fed up with all the shit that had happened over the past few months.

"FINALLY! SOMEONE gets it!"

" _Hey Ribby."_ A voice that Ron knew _very_ well intruded on the comm line. " _Miss me?"_

A red beam, originating somewhere in the direction of _Celestial Being,_ shot off the Cannon's head.

" _WHAT?!_ "

A clone of the Reborns Gundam(sans one Tau Drive) flew up from the rock. " _Surprise, bitch._ "

" _You!"_ Ribbons pointed with a trembling finger. _"You were the one fucking with Veda!_ "

Cassie chuckled. " _Well, it's my job._ "

The Reborns entered Trans-am, forcing 00 Raiser to follow suit.

Cassie's eyes widened. "Ooooohhhhh shit."

Ron twitched and curled up as the voices came back again. "Get out…" He gritted out.

' _Ron. Ron, can you hear me?!'_

"Cassie?" He asked, just barely able to say even _that._

"Ignore them. Focus on me. JUST on me. Focus on me."

* * *

Jaden watched Setsuna fight the Reborns before the Tau Gundam faltered. Setsuna saw the opportunity, and with reflexes faster than any human in this universe, shoved the GN Sword into Reborns' cockpit, and twisted the blade for good measure.

It was finally over.

He sighed, laxing in the cockpit as the remaining Gaga force kamikazes were shot up by Starfleet and the ESF. "Fucking finally… " he muttered. "I need a fucking vacation after this… "

" _You and everyone else. We're recalling all units. And you need to fucking hide: those ESF jackasses are targeting the_ Morningstar _. I think they want the_ Celestial Being _and I think Ron is more then happy to let them have it._ "

"What, he's not getting involved?"

" _Conflict's over, so Prime Directive reapplies. Besides, Jaden, we're leaving in a few days._ " Cassie reminded him.

"No, you're not." Jaden smirked. "We're coming with you."

* * *

" _In news today, the USS_ Ra Cailum _is preparing to leave our solar system. This superdreadnought has been seen assisting Celestial Being in fighting the proven corrupt A-Laws organization. The crew has refused to disembark to give interviews, and Celestial Being_ —"

"Shut it off." Ron deactivated the monitor on his desk. "We're leaving in 18 hours. No liberties, no shit. We're just going."

"Understood, Boss," Takeshi replied. "Well, time for ride number two with the ad-hoc trans-universal drive. Here's hoping we can get in, perform needed maintenance, and keep a low profile until we can get out again."

"And I'm hoping we go home. That way I can lynch Command. If you'll excuse me, I've been up for 148 hours, I'm bitchy, I need to sleep. The ship is yours, Take. Try not to blow it up."

"Right," Takeshi said, before a datapad he was carrying beeped. Taking a look at it, he added, "Though I'll stop at Sickbay first - time for my monthly shot."

Ron waved it off before leaving his ready room and heading for a turbolift to head to his quarters. Being up for over 6 days straight and entering combat was a bad idea. But it needed to be done.

The lift arrived on deck four, near his amazingly tiny quarters. He lived in the smallest possible room on the ship by choice, giving the quarters usually used by the captain to his XO. After all, the man had a family.

He entered and went straight to his bed, falling on it.

"Ron~"

Ron sighed, covering his eyes with his arm. "Not now Cassie. I _need_ sleep."

She giggled. "I think you might want to wait."

Ron looked at his girlfriend, who was now sitting beside him. "Here." She grabbed his hand and pressed it against where a heart would be.

It took Ron a moment to realize what her was feeling. His eyes widened. "Holy shit. You made yourself a _body?!"_

"I'm a REAL bitch that way." She pressed her lips to his, jumping on him.

* * *

"You _must_ be joking." The woman staring in front of Takeshi wore a simple Chinese dress. Wang Liu Mei was a collaborator with the Innovators.

If Ron were sitting behind the ready room desk, he would have threatened to shoot her if she didn't get off the ship.

"You want to… join us?" Takeshi asked, still surprised at what she was asking.

"Yes. You obviously need a real diplomat and… Celestial Being won't trust me worth a damn."

"I can understand why." Take started counting off his fingers."You betrayed them many times over, you helped the Innovators—"

"Don't make it worse. Your captain will want my head mounted on a pike."

Takeshi sighed. "OK, yeah, I can imagine you won't exactly be _welcome_ here," he admitted. "Still, why join _us_? From what I've heard, you could finance a sleeper ship and try your luck out in the stars of this universe - why do you want to try your luck with the _multiverse_?"

Liu Mei hung her head. "For as long as I can remember, greatness has _always_ been expected of me. I had to take the Wang family over when my brother proved he couldn't handle it. Here… my expectations are almost nil. Your captain doesn't care who I am. He only cares that you do your job. I've seen your crew: they're all misfits. Then I see them at work and see why he keeps them around."

Takeshi nodded. "Alright," he said. "Ron's got final call on this, so it'll have to wait until he gets up, but until then, I won't kick you off the ship."

The Chinese woman nodded before Jaden entered the ready room. "Where's Ron?"

"Sleeping."

Jaden blinked. "He sleeps?"

"He's 70% machine, but his organics need to rest eventually. So he regenerates his power cells and sleeps all at once." Takeshi stood. "I'd imagine the two of you have things you need to talk about, so I'll leave you to it. Don't take too long."

Takeshi left the ready room, shaking his head. Ron was going to kill him. But before he had to take his long shift on the bridge, he needed his shot.

* * *

For as long as he could remember, Takeshi had been receiving an injection once a month. When he asked why, all he was told was that he'd had an 'incident' when he was one year old, and the shots helped to prevent a recurrence. No one had ever explained just what happened.

And the injections could only be given by specially qualified physicians. However, they would not tell him just what was _in_ those injections. Any attempt he made at digging was shot down, which just made him more curious.

He sighed. He wasn't going to get answers thinking about it. He stepped through the doors into sickbay. "Here for my monthly shot, doc," he called out.

Rutia's deputy, someone Takeshi didn't even know the name of, walked over with an older-style hypo.

It was said that it was 'more effective' than the ones he was used to. He didn't bother to question it: he was no doctor. Rutia probably did, Ron was more than qualified.

"Good to see you, Commander," the redheaded doctor stated. "Now, if you'll let me at your shoulder…"

Takeshi nodded, undoing his uniform a bit to expose the shoulder, allowing the doctor to take the hypo and make the injection into the shoulder.

He felt whatever it was enter his bloodstream. "That hurt."

"Welcome to being a doctor. You want me using an actual needle?"

"No."

"Good. I'd get going: the captain hates it when you skimp on your shift to have fun with the missus."

Great, even the no-name doctor knew he did that on occasion.

* * *

Flay Allster sighed as she watched Takeshi leave sickbay. She had enough supplies to last a couple of years, but they were unable to get resupplied, meaning she'd have to get creative to replenish her stock.

It was vitally important, though, that she kept up her supply, and also kept what it was a secret.

Only a few people knew just what made Takeshi special, and she was the only one on the ship that knew that secret.

And those 'shots' were a vital part of it.

* * *

At the end of the shift, Takeshi was half-asleep before his forehead was poked. By Cassie. "Good morning, Take."

"Cassie?" he asked, somewhat surprised. "What, did you make yourself a body while infiltrating Veda?"

She smirked. "You hit it right on the nail."

Take rubbed his forehead. "Don't tell me. You went at it with Ron."

"Repeatedly. Let's say I'm not the only one who—" She was smacked upside the head by Ron, who looked normal.

"Don't brag. Take. Sleeping on the job again?"

Takeshi sighed. "Night shift is murder, Ron - especially just after I've had my monthly shot."

"You could just let me deal with it." Ron pulled Takeshi out of his chair.

And that was Ron's chair: that cushion was pretty much _designed_ for his ass.

"Yeah, told the docs that, they said no."

"Take your seat, Take. Get the _Morningstar_ on the horn."

"They're on," Cassie said, snapping her fingers before the screen of the _Morningstar's_ bridge appeared with Jaden sitting there… looking half asleep as well.

" _Jaden… Jaden?_ " Twilight looked at her CO, sighing, before lightly slapping him.

" _Who-ha-wha?!_ " He shouted, being jolted awake before he spotted Ron. " _Oh! Uhhh… Hey Captain Pinkerton! So… yeah, we're all ready here to leave this universe behind us._ "

"Riza?"

"Warp drive online."

"Get into position directly below us. After my XO gets sobered up, we're heading out." Takeshi actually snapped awake and rushed to the rear transporter pad before beaming to the _Firestorm_.

"You enjoyed that."

"You're DAMN right."

The _Morningstar_ entered formation with the _Ra Cailum_ , the _Firestorm_ directly below the non-warp ship.

"Synchronize helm control with the _Ra Cailum_." Ron ordered. "One pilot to minimize problems, thank you."

"Firestorm _helm control synchronized,_ " Takeshi reported. " _Ready when you are._ "

" _Morningstar_ controls locked!"

( **BGM: 07 BEGINNING - Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn OST 4** )

Ron sat down in the chair. "Warp speed!"

The three ships shot past an ESF patrol, whose GNX-IIIs saluted the three before the warp nacelles flashed, light surrounding the three ships.

"Wormhole in five seconds!"

The wormhole formed and the ships entered, vanishing from that universe and making their way to the next one.

* * *

 **Takeshi Yamato: And so ends the 00 arc. Some of you may be asking, "what exactly is in those injections Takeshi is needing?" Well, I won't say much, other than that it's a key set up point for a future element in the story.**

 **Ron the True Fan: One arc down, more to go.**

 **117Jorn: What's the next Arc you might ask? Well… Starfleet's going to be welcomed to a world of bloody evolution.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Things are, yet again, gonna be different this time.**

 **Ron the True Fan: And which—**

 **(ROARS)**

 **Ron the True Fan: FUCKING ULTRALISK! RUN! GO! GET TO THE SHUTTLE!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	10. Chapter 10

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

 **2410**

* * *

 _Captain's Log, USS_ Ra Cailum, _Stardate 87759.6: After THREE MONTHS in that insane universe, we're exited the wormhole again, only to find ourselves in another universe that is not our own. Gardner, I will SHOOT YOU for this. We're currently in orbit of a strange world that's jamming the piss out of our sensors if we look in for detailed scans. I've called a meeting of the senior staff tomorrow morning along with our Celestial Being tagalongs._

 _Pray that I survive this shit._

* * *

It looked like Earth at a glance.

But the lack of space stations in orbit, the shattered moon and the continents clearly stated that this was NOT Earth, not to mention the quantum signature.

But Jaden had… bigger problems. That all stemmed from Ron's newest toy: the CB-0000G/C Reborns Gundam/Cannon. After the battle, he pointed at it and said 'mine'. Sumeragi asked why, Ron's voice turned demonic and repeated the word, she backed away in fear and said go nuts.

But the Gundam (whose head he was going to replace with something that actually LOOKED like a Gundam's head) wasn't the problem.

Nena Trinity was. All he did was talk to Sonja and she was… well. It looked as though it would result in violence. He didn't really know _why_ though. Sonja was awesome! He has finally found someone who knows as much and more about engineering as he does! She had been showing him the hoops on Starfleet tech ever since they joined. But Nena just kept on glaring at her whenever they were in the same room.

"We've finally worked out the GN particle jamming problem." Sonja declared. "Took me THREE WEEKS to create the sensor filters and all of the shit we need for the ship to use the shit without jamming our own sensors."

"You're planning on using it with this monster?" Jaden asked, incredulous.

"It's a nigh-infinite power source that we can use as a backup supply in case we run out of deuterium." She explained. "Granted, it'll just be enough to power basic life support and impulse engines, as well as a few other systems, but it's enough to find another source of fuel."

"Nice to know." Jaden moved over to holo-table. "Also, I've started planning on the _Morningstar's_ successor, something that has the sheer MS capability that Ron wants, while also able to sport a warp field. Call me paranoid, but I think we're gonna be getting a _lot_ more ships in the near future."

"We have no luck. Knowing us, we're screwed." The door to main engineering opened, allowing Nena to enter the core of the starship. It was her first time in the massive drive core of the _Ra Cailum_ , but she had no time to be impressed, though she was. VERY.

She had a mission to make sure that bitch Henderson stayed away from Jaden.

Her eyes searched the area like a hawk, and she found her target, standing next to a holotable _with_ Jaden.

"The GN particles interact with the dilithium in ways that boost the performance of the warp core, increasing power generation by 150%." Sonja was saying. "I think we can boost that, but I REALLY don't want to use this shit in Trans-Am at warp speed."

"Yeah, if the twin drive is anything to go by, we _really_ don't want that." Jaden replied. "I know for a fact we can infuse GN particles with your weapons, but I've only ever tested it on Mobile Suits, not full on capital ships."

"Power generation is—" Sonja looked over to Nena. "Miss Trinity. Is there something I can do for you?" Nena lept over the table, kicking Sonja in the face. The engineering crews glanced before returning to work. They were used to this shit.

Jaden however, was not. "Nena, what the FUCK!?"

She ignored him, however, as Sonja had gotten to her feet and pulled two knives from god-knows-where.

"Cheeky bitch. I did jack shit to you." The crews then took cover. Knives usually meant throwing. Sonja and knives were bad.

"Like hell you haven't!"

"Nena, what are you talking about?!" Jaden yelled, trying to pull her away, but a knife flew by his head, actually taking some hair with it.

"ENOUGH!"

Both froze at the loud yell from the only man they all feared, holding a blade mere centimeters from his face. "I have no idea what is going on and I don't care. This ends now."

Nena jumped at Sonja, resulting in more fighting. Ron simply pulled out his assault phaser and shot them both. "Fucking christ."

"What the fuck just happened?" Jaden asked, on the verge of panicking. "Nena just came in and attacked Sonja!"

"I know. And while it would be entertaining to watch them beat the piss out of one another, this situation is VERY much not the usual thing. We are fuck years from home and I'd rather have everyone at their posts."

"...Fuckyears?"

"You got anything better to call it?"

Jaden shrugged. " _Anyways,_ got anything about the planet below?"

Ron shook his head. "No. Other than the fact that this is _not_ Earth, we can't pick up much. Something down there is _severly_ fucking with our sensors. We can't see anything aside from the stuff we see with the mark 1 eyeball."

"Meaning we need an away team." Jaden deduced.

"I'm automatically assigning myself, Luna and Takeshi. It'll give him the excuse to use his… special shotgun."

"Shotgun?"

"Yes. But first, I need to give these two… something."

* * *

It carried 6 rounds: 5 in the tube, one in the chamber.

It was lever-action, meaning it was DAMN fast to fire.

It was the Winchester M1887.

It might not have had a grenade launcher attachment like Takeshi's Pulsewave rifle, but it was still good at close-quarters. He'd even had Matt get started on making some explosive rounds for it to make up for the lack of a grenade launcher.

It also made a pretty good club. Luna, on the other hand, had a more powerful weapon: the PPTD-41 AMR. 14.5mm rounds of death at long range. Bitch to reload, but it was nasty. "Standard procedure when we go down there."

"Right," Takeshi replied. "Low profile. If we get trouble, I go in close while you provide cover at range."

"Hmm… I wonder if I could build a smaller mobile suit… " Both glanced back as Jaden entered the room, nose-deep in his PADD. "Couldn't add a GN Drive… but a smaller size means less power output, so GN Condensers could work… or I could use power cells from the _Ra Cailum_ … "

"Jaden?" Takeshi asked.

"A smaller frame makes moving on foot more lengthy… " He continued, utterly oblivious to the two others in the room as he approached the small armory, picking out a G3A3 Rifle. "But it would be ideal for urban combat to avoid maximum destruction… but mobility… hmm, rollerblades, perhaps? Or Hover pads…"

"He's stuck in tech-land." Both glanced back to where Nena and Sonja walked in, both still glaring at one another, but each having some kind of necklace around their necks now. "Whenever he's thinking tech, he just stays there and pays almost zero attention to what's around him…"

"What's with the necklaces?" Takeshi asked the pair. "Did Ron stick something in them that forces you together?"

"More like an attempt to keep us from murdering each other."

"What happened?"

Nena huffed, Sonja shrugged. "She attacked me, I responded. Bitch."

Nena lunged at Sonja, a faint glow emanating from BOTH collars.

"AGONIZERS?!" Take shouted. "You made AGONIZERS?!"

"I figured pain would keep them from murdering one another. Apparently hanging around me made Sonja VERY resistant to pain. And Nena's 75% Innovade: I doubt she can even feel it."

Takeshi glanced at the two girls… as Sonja tried to cut Nena with a knife, while the other tried to strangle her. "…I'm saying that's true…" he muttered. "But… _why_ are they trying to kill each other?"

"Hell if I know," Ron shrugged, "Nena started attacking her, then Sonja started attacking Nena. Whenever I ask why, the two just stop talking!" He looked at the pair. "Doesn't stop the attempts from being VERY entertaining!"

Both Yamatos just looked at Ron before Luna shrugged: it was Ron.

"Ok, where the hell are we going?"

"We saw a city near one of the coastlines. We're beamin' in once you all get yourselves into civilian attire."

"You have no civilian clothing, Ron."

"I do, I just never use it. The uniform works wonders."

Takeshi sighed. "Well, we'll take your word for it. Come on, Luna, let's get into appropriate attire."

"Right behind you, Takeshi," Luna replied as the two left.

Ron looked at the two women, then at Jaden. "OH. NOW I know why."

"Buh?" Jaden glanced up from the PADD.

"You'll figure it out. I'll be back."

Jaden rose his brow, glancing at the two women as they glanced away from him, before he just shrugged.

* * *

"You're still wearing the uniform pants. And the boots."

Ron, wearing a simple tanktop with an overshirt and his G36E/AG36 over it, shrugged while holding the two women. "I had to keep these two from killing each other. I don't care WHY you want each other dead. It ends NOW. I need at least two engineers down there, and you three are the best on-the-spot people I know of. That aren't me. Now, enough."

The two women continued to glare at one another, but they didn't attack the other… yet.

"And I thought we were an odd pair." Cassie approached the adhoc away team, smiling at Ron. Jaden looked at her briefly. "Oh, hi, Cassie. Reintegrated back into the networks?"

"You could say that." She kissed Ron on the lips, which caught Jaden's attention. "You're a hologram: what's the point?"

"Who says I'm a hologram anymore, Takeo?"

Jaden blinked… before he put two and two together. "Ah! You made yourself an Innovade body!" he realized. "Well, good for you then! They weren't really designed for that but… hell, as long as it works. "

"This isn't an Innovade's body. Innovade bodies suck. This is MY body. The only thing that's keeping me from being like Ron… well, I need Borg nanotechnology for that."

"Innovades are pretty fucking awesome."

"And overspecialized. I am not. I can do everything they can and MORE."

Jaden suddenly had the feeling she was hinting about the couple's sex life. He didn't want to know.

"Well… either way, we all ready to see what's down there?" Jaden asked. "Kinda excited… totally new world, new universe… I mean sure, this probably means jack-shit to you guys, but still… "

"We're excited. But this is what we do."

"What MOST Starfleet officers do." Ron corrected. "We're not assigned to the frontier. We build starbases. We test technologies. We are never sent to make first contact with anyone. I tend to piss people off. A lot."

"We know. Ribbons was SCREAMING at you the entire time. It was funny, but… yeah."

"That's nothing compared to what he did to Sela," Takeshi replied. " _That_ cost us the first _Ra Cailum_."

"What did he do?" Jaden asked warily.

"Well…"

* * *

 **June 2409 - USS _Ra Cailum_ NCC-94517, Brea System **

* * *

The _Sovereign_ -Class battlecruiser flipped, diving into a warzone. " _This is your last chance to surrender! The full fury of this dreadnought—_ "

"Hey, Sela! Empress Bitchtits!"

Sela's rant stopped for a moment. " _What did you call me?_ "

"Empress Bitchtits. Or should that be the Bitch-whore-cunt of the Romulan Star Empire? I think you slept with a few million people to get your ass on that throne!"

Sela let out a scream of rage, then barked out orders in Romulan. At that point, her ship turned and charged straight at the _Ra Cailum_.

"I think you made her mad, Ron!" Takeshi yelled.

"GOOD! Riza, take us towards the _Laehval_ , full impulse! _Scimitar_ vs _Sovereign_ , round two! HAVE AT THEE, BITCH!"

The two ships fired at one another, Sela screaming at the top of her lungs while Ron just yelled 'SPARTA!' as the two charged at one another.

 _"You're insane!"_

"I thought you knew that already!"

The two ships closed, the _Laehval_ getting larger and larger in the viewscreen as both ships unloaded their weapons on each other. Takeshi hit his intercom button. "All hands, brace for impact!"

The _Ra Cailum_ SLAMMED into the _Laehval_ , tearing out part of the saucer before slamming the starboard warp nacelle into the main body of the ship. "I WIN, BITCH!"

* * *

"He RAMMED the ship into another ship, set the auto destruct and… fled like a bitch?"

"Well, would YOU want to be on a self-destructing ship?" Takeshi asked. "Besides, Sela had a bit of a weird Yandere crush on the guy."

"You're shitting me." Jaden deadpanned.

"Nope. Tried to abduct him twice. Succeeded once and almost raped him. That week over Nopada was… FUN. Let's say Ron was VERY interested in staying in a sonic shower before diving into a vat of plasma coolant. Had to spend a few days in a vat to reconstitute his skin, but he said he never felt cleaner."

Takeshi sighed. "So, yeah, what he did to Ribbons pales in comparison to what he did to Sela, but I guess that makes sense, given that he was having to deal with her yandere stalker tendencies."

"He also kinda held his girlfriend—"

"Wife. Don't ask: their relationship is more screwed up then mine and Takeshi's. She's pretty much said no one touches Ron. Ever."

Jaden looked at the happy, giggling Cassie and tried to picture her as a yandere murderer.

Actually, it was pretty fucking easy.

"So… when did it happen?"

"About a week after she was born. Well, her interest. They only got together a week before the Iconian war."

"Really? That's… interesting."

"Well, she did come about from Ron upgrading the first _Ra Cailum's_ computers with Borg Tech," Takeshi admitted. "I have to imagine that part of her interest came from that."

"Your computers are—"

"Ron knows what he's doing."

* * *

While the two couples talked, Nena and Sonja continued to glare. "He's mine."

"What the fuck is your PROBLEM?" Sonja snarled. "He's a co-worker, nothing more!"

"Oh don't give me that shit!" Nena growled, "I _see_ the way you look at him! You go out of your way to see him! I've known him for _years_ bitch - don't you butt in!"

"He's one of the few people able to keep up with me in engineering matters. Fuck you!" The agonizers activated again as Nena tried to choke Sonja and vice versa.

"This is entertaining and all, but we have work to do." Ron stated, as he walked onto the transporter pad - followed by Jaden, Takeshi and Luna, and then the still glaring women. "Energize."

The 6 disappeared in showers of light. "I get the feeling that world is going to suffer for all six of them being down there." The transporter officer mused.

"The captain and Jaden I get, same with the ladies. But the XO and his wife?" The other officer asked.

"The XO and his wife are insane in their own way."

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: Filler chapter. Not much in the way of content, but what the hell.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: This will be the day we've waited for, this will be the day we open up the door…**

 **Redemption's Avenger: And the bloody evolution comes sooner, but with a lot less blood. At least, on our side. (evil face)**

 **117Jorn: While that's all happening… I have some old friends of ours to pick up :D**

 **Ron the True Fan: Wait...WHY do I hear the sound of a J58?**

 **Ja Ne!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Vale**

 **2410, Federation Standard Calendar**

* * *

A shower of blue light deposited the away team in an abandoned alleyway, away from the eyes of the general populace.

A sharp metal blade slammed into Ron's head multiple times. "Personal shields, Sonja: You're not going to do anything."

"Don't care." She emphasized each word with a stab. "Makes. Me. FEEL. BETTER!"

Takeshi rubbed his face. "Oh god, it's gonna be one of _those_ days."

"Jaden, Take Nena and Takeshi with you; Luna, Sonja and I will go elsewhere. SOLVE this. I don't need two women trying to stab each other."

"Solve WHAT?!" Jaden asked, _very_ confused. "I have no idea what's going on here!" He just sighed. "Fine, fine, just… be careful Sonja, no idea what could be on this planet… "

"You too," Sonja said, showing one last glare at Nena before turning to leave with Ron and Luna… ' _Why do I feel so… competitive about this?_ ' Sonja thought, ' _I mean, I'm not REALLY falling for him… right?_ '

He dragged his unruly engineer away, Nena glaring at him and making faces. Sonja, naturally, threw a knife. "ENOUGH. Let's go."

Nena stared at the wall where the knife had imbedded itself to the hilt.

"Come on, Nena," Takeshi stated. "Let's get moving."

"Bitch." Ron shot her a look that described the pain she would be in if she did not shut up NOW.

And not from Sonja. From HIM. And he didn't care about hitting women: if they were being stupid, he didn't care.

So she backed the fuck off.

* * *

"Nena, you have been level-headed for YEARS." Jaden started."Why are you suddenly so… well…"

"Trying to kill a bitch?"

"I wouldn't put it that way, but yes."

Nena sighed, "It's… it's just… " she spoke, gulping slightly. "You've been spending… all this time with S… with _Starfleet_ , and you haven't really been around m-us, in the _Morningstar_ … "

"You think I'm prioritizing them over us?" Jaden asked, "Nena, you and the crew of the _Morningstar_ are like family to me, because of that you guys _always_ come first. It's just, well… with no A-Laws or such to fight, I've had time to really delve into what Starfleet has and all… "

"I know it's just…" Nena sighed. "Look, this… this is a bad time for this… if she doesn't start anything, I won't do… anything… "

Jaden shook his head, before patting her shoulder "That's all I ask," he said, "Though once we're done here, we're really gonna have to sit down with Sonja and talk about whatever's going on here."

"I don't like her."

"Too bad. Nena, we're going to be working with these people for YEARS." Jaden emphasised. "Hell, Takeshi probably hates Ron, but he puts that aside to do his job."

"I'm right here, Jaden." Take interceded. " And I don't hate Ron. He's a frustrating bastard, but around him, life is NEVER boring." Jaden could not disagree.

In the last three months, they'd had more action then CB had had in five years. Interesting was an understatement.

"So…" Jaden looked for a topic. "How'd you get assigned to that massive ship of yours, Takeshi?"

"Well, after the destruction of our previous ship, which was gonna be retired anyway, Command decided we needed something more appropriate - so they gave us the biggest ship in Starfleet."

"But why weren't you commanding something like the _Firestorm?_ " Jaden replied. "You seem more suited to those sorts of things, not the XO of a klick-long ship."

"Before I became Ron's XO, I wasn't really interested in commanding anything," Takeshi informed. "I was a helmsman, pure and simple. And I started out as Ron's helmsman, too, before we got his sister Riza on the crew, aka the Destroyer of Shuttles."

"You're shitting me."

"I shit you not. She breaks EVERYTHING smaller than a light cruiser. Even the _Defiant_ -Class, which are built like tanks, break from her overly-skilled hands."

"Really? Wouldn't that imply she sucks?"

"You've seen the _Ra Cailum_ outturn destroyers one-twentieth the mass. She's skilled. The ships just aren't strong enough."

Jaden detected a small amount of dislike to that. "You're jealous that she's a better pilot."

Take sighed. "Don't tell the two, but yes."

"Secret's safe with us," Jaden assured with a chuckle, "We all go through it, I was jealous of Setsuna when he got the Exia, but got over it… hell I got 0 Gundam afterwards to toy around with, so it all worked out!" He then thought. "Hmm… I wonder if Mobile Suits could survive her skills… I'll make that a side project."

"Oh, god no!"

* * *

"What the fuck was going on?" Sonja shrugged. "No clue, boss, but the bitch just up and attacked me."

"Anything to do with your feelings toward our newest engineer?"

"WHAT?! Sir, he's a co-worker!"

Ron narrowed his eyes. "Don't lie to me. I can see a romantic relationship when I see one. You're attracted to him."

Sonja began to protest, but another glare from Ron caused her to stop, before she sighed "Look I… I don't know, alright?" She admitted, "I've never actually met anyone who could keep up with me in engineering since I met Scotty! Jaden, he's the only one who actually can keep up with me - not counting you of course, Ron. "

"I cheat and you know it."

"Yeah, Borg bullshit. Comes in handy."

"Look, just get it out in the open: it took six months for me and Cassie to get together and we didn't have much time thanks to that—"

* * *

In the tower in at the edge of town, a loud 'FUCKING WHORE!' was heard.

* * *

"So do NOT make the same mistake. Go and test the waters. I'll deal with Nena. You COULD tell them about Federation marriage laws."

Sonja squirmed. "I don't kno-"

"Stop it!"

The group froze and turned like hawks towards the sound of distress.

"I sense reasons for me to be pissed." The trio approached the source of the scream, finding a girl being picked on. Ron was tempted to shoot the morons. "Does she have… rabbit ears?"

"Luna… Do we care? How many species are in the Federation? How many weird and wonderful things are out there that we don't care what they look like?"

"…Point taken."

"L-Look, I don't… don't want any trouble, alright?" The Rabbit-eared girl said, backed up against the wall to the bullies. "I'm just… going back to Beacon… "

"Shut up, animal!"

Luna mentally cued up the most fitting music she could think of as Ron walked over, tapping the hilt of his sword.

If he hated anyone, it was racist morons.

"We're going to show you—" He tapped on the offender's shoulder, getting his attention before waving. And promptly shoving his fist into the retard's face.

Note that Ron punches much harder than most Klingons.

Klingons break the bones of 'weaker' species if they aren't careful. Ron punched as hard as he could.

The offender literally went _flying_ to the other side of the sidewalk, with his face looking a bit more… _bent_.

"Wha-WHAT THE FUCK?!" One of the other bullies shouted, "THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!"

"Being a good samaritan." Ron drew his sword, bring it to level with the neck of the man holding her ear. "Let her go. Or I get stabby. And I feel VERY stabby today." A woman pulled out a knife, but Ron caught the blade with his free hand, bending the metal with his grip. "Big mistake. I kill idiots like you. Today, you get a free pass. I'm just going to make you wish I killed you instead."

"Son of a - GET THAT FREAK-LOVER!" Another one shouted, as the bullies charged at Ron.

The fight lasted seconds, as Ron activated his motion accelerator, smashing skulls and bones before shoving the idiots against a wall.

"I'd make you take a dip in the death tub, but I don't have time for this shit." He sheathed the blade before looking at the now-VERY terrified girl. "You alright?" She slowly backed away from him. "I save someone's life and this is the thanks I get."

"To be fair, you _did_ just hand their asses to them in under ten seconds." Luna replied. "I'd be scared too."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Nevermind that. If you mind me asking, young miss, why did you let them bully you?"

"…It wouldn't change anything." The lady replied quietly. "I thought—"

"You thought wrong." Ron interrupted."Next time, fight back. Don't sit on your ass hoping to be be saved. Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem."

She blinked at the latin phrase. "Huh?"

"It means the only safety for the conquered is to hope for no safety. You need to fight."

"And make things _worse?_ " The woman shouted, "Every Time we fight back, it gets _Worse_ for Faunus! _You_ just made this worse!" Before Ron could form a reply, the bunny-girl just turned and ran away.

"…Something tells me we're gonna have to figure out what's going on here… " Sonja muttered.

"Fuck's sake."

A number of police officers rushed into the area. "Freeze!"

"Look, jackass, we just did your job for you." Ron replied, having none of this. "Morons were assaulting a young lady, I… dealt with them. Extreme, yes. But how else do you deal with stupid beyond throttling it to death?" He made motions involving choking, making Sonja facepalm and Luna hang her head.

The cops just backed up and looked at each other. "Dude, we just told you to freeze, it's not like we're gonna arrest you."

"Says you." Cop 2 shot back.

"Freezing usually leads to arrest and I have a bigger gun than you do. Look, let's just give you a report and put this asid—"

"Oi! Big guy!" Ron looked behind the cops, finding a disaster.

A brown-haired woman wearing a beret, holding a purse and dressed to go down a catwalk. "Great. Fashion people. What the hell do you want?"

An eyebrow raised itself from behind the girl's glasses, but Cop 2 cut in before she could reply. "Get out of here, girly, this doesn't involve you."

"This guy saved my teammate from a bunch of pricks. I'm involved."

"Huh?"

"I'm a huntress. He kicked the shit out of people harassing my teammate." She spelled it out. "And really, the guy looks like he could kill you both: I'd think you should do what he asks."

"Damn it. We'll be watching you, buddy."

"With your donut eating habits?" Ron ran a critical eye across the man's belly. "I doubt it."

Cop 1 chuckled, before grabbing his partner and dragging him away.

"Seriously, thank—"

"Thank me by breaking her habit. If she won't defend herself against a bunch of idiots, she has no place in actual combat. For that matter, neither do you with THAT get up."

She raised her eyebrow yet again. "Every Hunter or Huntress has their own style. And it's effective, in their own way. Besides, you haven't seen everything yet."

"What's a Huntress?" Luna asked.

The woman's eyebrow disappeared into her hairline. "Well… You know what, come with me. I have a feeling Professor Ozpin would like to meet you."

"I'll collect someone before we run along."

"Really? Who?"

* * *

Jaden and Nena STARED at Velvet Scarletina's ears. It wasn't out of horror, more wonder, but it was making her uncomfortable.

"Quit staring. NOW. Or I will remove your ability to stare, Takeo."

Jaden jumped at the threatening voice from Ron.. "Sorry, it's just… I don't see bunny ears on a human everyday."

"Faunus." Ron autocorrected. "Besides, she's very sensitive about her ears, so if you don't stop staring, Coco might beat me to it."

"I've got faster reflexes than she does."

"And I have faster reflexes than both of you _combined_. So _do_ it."

"She looks so cute…" Nena muttered, causing Velvet to blush slightly.

"You… think so?" She asked.

"Yes!" Nena proclaimed, "I mean come on! How could anyone hate someone like you?! You look so freaking _adorable_!" She squeed.

"…didn't take you as someone who saw things as 'cute' Nena," Jaden chuckled, causing the young woman to blush slightly.

"That's a change." Coco commented, before she turned to Ron. "What about you, big man?"

"Pinkerton. I don't care. She was being attacked, I responded. I don't care what your species is."

"Can't wait for you to prove that, asshole."

"Hit me with whatever you got, it don't do a damn thing."

The two former CB members simultaneously agreed. "Trust me, he's taken big hits. Jinx!"

"Huh."

* * *

 **Vacuo**

 **Unknown Location**

* * *

Death and destruction reigned over the area. Metal clanked as it cooled, wood burned from fires. Frankly, it looked like a warzone.

All caused by one man.

"That's done." The man stored his weapon and made his way out of the area. "Should be good for a while." He stepped on a groaning White Fang member - one of the few to survive the attack - and worked on a Scroll. "Getting low on ammo and gasses, can find those anywhere. Oh, and my new armor should be ready by now."

The brown-haired, blue-eyed man of five feet ten inches strode away from the destruction he caused. "Need to head to Vale anyway."

A custom-modified gunship drifted down in front of him, summoned by a beckon call. "I can take up another bounty while I'm up there too."

Mark Thyler smiled as he took the pilot's chair, unknowing of the adventure that would await him.

* * *

"Nice school. Bit gaudy."

"Do you have to judge it by the standards of Starfleet Academy, Ron?" Takeshi asked.

"No better school." He replied proudly, posing with his hands on his hips.

Jaden looked at Ron and Takeshi in horror. They were openly breaking their Prime Directive!

Coco looked back at the captain and XO of the most powerful ship in the UFP. "What was that?"

"There are many languages, fashion lady and that was one of them. I know over 300, most of them extinct." Jaden made the connection: universal translators. Ron just said something in a language from his own universe.

"FUCK ME!"

"Sorry, you're not my type. Besides, I'm engaged."

"I TOLD you!" Luna shouted at Takeshi.

"Who'd marry an asshole like you?"

"A lady who actually has a brain for something other than fashion. She'd never wear THAT gaudy monstrosity you've got on."

"Excuse me? Your outfit screams—"

"Practical and low-cost. Ease of movement, no frills. Nothing to get in the way if you have to move and it doesn't matter if it gets dirty. You probably SCREAM if you get a speck of dust on that beret of yours."

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNN!"

Said man cackled. "I love it when people do that."

" _You are a bastard_." Cassie said through Ron's ear-link.

" _And you LOVE it_."

The six were escorted into the building, Ron tripping a large student with the scabbard of his sword.

"How'd you know he was anti-faunus?" Velvet asked, puzzled.

"I didn't. He seemed the bully type."

"He's true, he does look like a Jock bully." Jaden commented.

"Yeah, Cardin's a complete ass." Coco elaborated. "He bullies just about anyone, Faunus the most. We have threatened to break his legs multiple times, but then we'd get expelled."

Ron hmmed before grabbing something rather hard, then throwing it like a spear at the bastard's leg, spearing through it. Cardin screamed like a little girl, causing several people to, despite themselves, laugh out loud.

"I don't have that problem."

"What is WITH YOU?!"

"I'm the supreme asshole. Deal with it."

* * *

"I should have you thrown off the grounds! Injuring a student—"

"A known bully, blackmailer and general asshole. Where I was taught, dicks like them were dealt with through more or less the same means I just used, dominatrix. I just went further."

Glynda Goodwitch's vein popped out even _more_ in fury. "You—"

"Glynda." A wise, experienced voice soothed. "Please, do not antagonize our guests."

"So, Prince, what can we do for you?"

"Prince?"

Ron grinned wildly. "ALL ABOARD! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!"

Jaden chuckled. "Old joke."

Ozpin wasn't phased, simply taking a sip of his drink, while Glynda looked like she was about to pass out from a rage-induced stroke.

Ron simply grinned while Luna hummed the 'Asshole' song. "Again, Ozzy, what can we do for you?"

Ozpin sighed and set himself. "With the upcoming Vital Festival, our faculty are busy handling both classes and preparations. People of your skillsets would be excellent in teaching temporarily so the staff can focus on the Festival."

Takeshi and Luna looked horrified. Sonja looked like she was going to laugh.

Jaden and Nena...were clueless. "What's with the looks?"

"Ron used to teach at the Academy."

"And?"

"It's RON we're talking about."

Both of them paled. Ron, the bastard who goaded Ribbons Almark, pissed off EVERYONE he talked to and generally ruined their days.

"The students are fucked. _Fucked_ ~" Luna sang.

"...I think coming here was a bad idea." Takeshi groaned, an expression of eternal suffering painting his face.

"You _think?_ "

* * *

"So...what did he do?" Jaden asked.

"Ron was the extreme combat teacher at Starfleet Academy." Takeshi explained. "There was only one rule: survive. You could do anything, seeing as Ron's idea of combat is that there are no rules except survival."

Made sense, as in real combat no one cared about proper stances or movesets. You had to improvise.

Which was why people who were near-religious about 'proper form' and hyper-precise plans usually died.

"So, what are you teaching, Jaden?" Nena asked.

"Oh, I'm teaching history."

Sonja saw the flaw in that immediately. "How can you teach history when you don't know jack shit about this planet's history?"

"The great war was roughly 100 years ago, the people use Dust as an energy source, and they have magic-like abilities using Dust and Aura." Jaden spoke up, causing both women to blink. "I told you - I'm a quick study and not only in engineering."

"Well, Beacon is screwed. The UNIVERSE is screwed. Ronald Pinkerton is teaching again. It's like Mr. Bean having a passport, but infinitely worse!"

"So… be very afraid?"

"MORE than very."

* * *

"I am your new combat teacher. You can either call me Professor Pinkerton or God. God because unless you work very hard and get very lucky, you're never going to beat me."

He then started up a burner and tossed a book titled 'Basic Armed combat' onto it, causing a green flame. "Odd. Usually paper burns red, but with me, it's green."

This was an ominous start for all of his students.

Especially one redhead with a hood. "Oh, boy."

* * *

 **Takeshi Yamato: Hello, Beacon Academy. Say goodbye to your sanity.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Poor RWBY. screwed from the start. Speaking of which, where's Jorn?**

 **117Jorn: *Rushes inside* THEY'RE HERE! *Door suddenly explodes***

 **Yang: Huh, they don't make doors like they use too…**

 **Ron the True Fan: I detect bad things in the next few seconds.**

 **Weiss: You made Takeshi force you to remake this!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Called it. If you excuse me, I need to get my tank. (Flees)**

 **Takeshi Yamato: On the plus side, White Rose is going to be happening a lot sooner than in the previous story, just by dint of the RWBY arc happening sooner.**

 **Ruby: REVENGE!**

 **Ron the True Fan: (Rolls up in Maus) Bring it!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Vale**

 **2410, Federation Standard Calendar**

* * *

Ruby Rose sat in her chair when their new teacher arrived. "Greetings, fucks for brains. I am Ronald Pinkerton, your new extreme combat teacher. I want you all to throw EVERYTHING you know about combat and toss it into a pile to be burned. I'm going to show you how REAL combat is. Not that ten-count, aura-depleted BULLSHIT."

The class all looked at Ron in confusion at his statement, and his… _wording_ of it. "Bit of an ass, but… I like this guy," Yang whispered to Ruby.

"Meaning, children, in this class, you will fight, bleed, and most likely suffer. You will not be leaving this class unscarred. You WILL be completely humiliated and badly hurt." His gaze turned to Ruby. "Especially you."

"Huh?"

"What, was it take your daughter to work day? You do not BELONG here, little girl, so I suggest you leave now before you start crying like a little BITCH."

Ruby recoiled at the sudden insult, her eyes beginning to well up… and infuriating the rest of her team.

"Oi Jackass!" Yang shouted as she, Blake, and even Weiss stood up. "No one talks like that to my Sister! Even Weiss wasn't that bad!"

"Hey!"

"It's a _compliment_ , Weiss."

"Well, then, blondy, what the fuck are you—" She launched her fist at Ron's face.

The teacher caught the offending hand with ease, then slammed her onto the floor. "You have MUCH to learn. You're a boxer. Boxers are not real fighters. Your place is in the ring. Or in someone's bed, in your case."

Yang's eyes flared red and a flurry of shotgun blasts flew at Ron. "Oooo, shotgun gauntlets. Where'd you get them, the sex store?"

Team RWBY's screams of rage would be heard in Vale.

* * *

"What the hell is he DOING in there?"

"His specialty: pissing people off."

* * *

Ron dodged EVERYTHING shot at him by Yang and deflected Weiss' blade with his bare hands. "Fancy. Wonder how much it'll cost for you to replace it if I snap it like a fucking twig!"

Weiss glared, before rotating the cylinder on her weapon, bringing up an Ice Dust crystal and causing the blade to chill the air around it.

Ron was unaffected, even kicking Weiss hard enough that she lost grip on Mysterncaster. Ron took the blade by the hilt, then shoved it into the floor, making it halfway down. "Bitch, PLEASE." He'd fought Breen and they had a LOT colder weapons.

Blake attempted to be sneaky, but Ron grabbed her blade before unceremoniously snapping it in half. "Admirable, if futile." He punched her in the face, hard enough for the concussive force to bypass her Aura and draw blood.

"BLAKE!" Ruby shouted, before growling as she opened fire on Ron with Crescent Rose, but once again Ron just tilted his head back and forth, dodging each shot as if he knew exactly where they would go before hand.

He did: his positronic brain allowed him to calculate the course of each shot, then he shifted to avoid it. "Maybe I should have you practice. Maybe starting you out with the broadside of a barn?" Ruby yelled as she swung her scythe at him, but all he did was catch the weapon before simply kicking Ruby in the face, disarming her before experimentally spinning the scythe around. "Off-balance and overengineered. Not to mention the gun is a needless addon." Yang was introduced to Ron's new weapon by having it slammed into her face, then the shaft into her gut, sending her into a wall.

"And Ozzy said you were the best? You're all PATHETIC."

* * *

Jaden let out a sigh as he heard the sounds of Ron's fight from the classroom. "Alright people… let's go ahead and set the records straight here." He said, looking at the class. "Today's lesson is all about the Faunus. I've been given a lesson plan… but I say fuck it, and I'm telling you what you actually _need_ to know. The Faunus got screwed over. _Badly._ "

He showed a map of Menagerie. " _This_ is supposed to be their homeland. At first it doesn't seem _too_ bad, sure it's 2/3rds Desert, but if Vacuo could survive, so could Menagere, right? WRONG." Everyone recoiled as he slammed his fist into the desk. "Those 2/3rds of Desert are _also_ home to scores of deadly predators - and not just fucking Grimm! So all the Faunus are forced to live in the coastal areas, cramped up like they were a bunch of Animals."

"Sounds fitting," Cardin chuckled with his team, until…

*BANG*

-He began screaming in pain as his kneecap was blown off. "You see that?" Jaden pointed at the withering Cardin with his overly-high powered pistol, " _That_ is a racist prick - and no amount of logic shall appeal to him - so what do we do? You give him _pain_ , so once they associate idiocy with pain, they won't be such fucking idiots anymore! Someone get him a medic… next question?"

More screaming was heard before the wall cracked. "Ok, what the hell is he doing?" Jaden exited the room, going next door to Ron's class.

He found a ballroom blitz as Team RWBY was making EVERY attempt to kill Ron. And hilariously failing as he smacked them away. "What the FUCK?!"

"This is the most fun I've had in SIX MONTHS! AHAHAHAHAHHAA!"

"MOTHERFUCKER!" Yang's hair had evolved into flames, Blake was showing more emotion than anyone had ever seen, Weiss was openly screaming obscenities, and Ruby was trying to kill Ron while simultaneously soothing Crescent Rose.

"DON'T WORRY BABY, MOMMY'S GONNA SAVE YOU!" Ruby shouted as she tried to yank Cresent Rose from Ron's grasp.

"Well." Jaden watched it all dispassionately. "Ron does what Ron does."

"Note, children, that I have NOT drawn my sword once. Beyond disarming the mediocre Rose—" He shoved the blade into Yang's gut, sending her into the wall. "I've only used CQC. Improv CQC, no less, because in combat—" Ruby rushed Ron, but the girl's ability to fight without her scythe… didn't exist, so he tossed her into the same hole her sister was in. "There ARE no rules."

' _Yeah, but this is just flat out unfair._ ' Jaden mused, watching as RWBY continued to hurl themselves towards Ron. ' _I mean, it's funny, but it's the sad kind of funny…_ '

"So remember, kids, don't be Team RWBY." Blake and Weiss were then shoved into the same hole. "Be better."

* * *

Mark cocked his head to the side. "Why did I just hear a bunch of very pissed off girls screaming?"

Mark shook off the thought and proceeded to lug the stuff he had just brought to the hotel room in Vale. He had everything from everyday clothes to ammo, including his new armor and some more… illicit materials.

 _'Everything I'll need.'_

After dropping the things off and arming himself for some reconnaissance, the young bounty hunter made his way into the 'bad' end of town.

His target was a large warehouse, base of operations for a non-White Fang group that was raiding shipping, stores, and just outright killing. More than enough reason to take them down.

' _Fairly decent defenses.'_ Mark thought, watching the patrolling henchmen. _'Looks like they kept some of the merchandise for themselves; those are state-of-the-art pulse rifles.'_

The warehouse itself was filled with crates, and he could see a heavy freight elevator leading down to lower floors.

' _Can't go in in broad daylight, so I'm gonna have to finish scouting at night.'_ He would wait. It was fine being cautious.

* * *

After their unceremonious asswhooping (it could NOT be called anything else) Team RWBY began spying on Ron out of class. They wanted to find ANY way to kick his ass next time.

So far, they learned that he had a sister who he taught to use a scythe, he has a passing respect for authority, he pissed off EVERYONE and was VERY good at hurting people.

As proven when he broke Yatsuhashi's arm when he pulled his routine with Team CFVY.

"This is just getting SAD now…" Jaden muttered, watching CFVY gettings their asses handed to them. "He's not even letting them have a fair fight… "

"Realistically, their enemies wouldn't give them a fair fight either," Sonja informed, sitting next to him as the watched the fight. "So that's how he teaches."

"Yeah, but it's getting ridiculous," He shook his head. "At this point, we'll make them quit…" He hummed in thought. "Someone needs to… _even the odds_ … "

"Really?"

"Well, Ron needs to learn he's not god."

"Oh, he knows he's not god. He doesn't have the ego for it. What he IS is an asshole. And assholes don't play fair. On the OTHER hand… we're ALSO assholes. …If you excuse me, I need to do something."

"As do I," Jaden chuckled as both engineers left the arena… both chuckling madly.

Ron felt a shiver go down his spine, glancing up "The hell was that?" He asked, as he blocked one of Yang's punches without looking.

* * *

A few days later, Ron's next target was Team JNPR.

Jaune, however, was not rising to the bait. He was smarter then he looked.

"I bet you hide behind your girlfriend in combat, Arc! What'd you do to get into Beacon, bribe a councilman?" Pyrrha nearly stood up and stabbed Ron, but Jaune held her back, as he figured out Ron's plan: piss them off, see what it would take to break them. If they attacked, that meant they needed to work on their discipline. If they didn't…

Well, no one knew: he made CFVY and RWBY attack him without fail.

While Ron continued to attempt to goad them to attack, RWBY awaited their turn as they aimed to take Ron down.

"How the hell do we beat him?"

"He knows everything we do before we do it!"

"I could help…" Everyone turned as Jaden walked up towards them. "I think Ron could afford to be knocked down a peg or two…"

"How do you-" Weiss began, before he presented them with several dust cases.

"A little invention of mine," he informed. "Call them Super-Dust rounds if you want, they pack three times the punch of the regular ones, and have semi-guidance systems so they actually _turn_ to meet the target when fired. At least now you might be able to hit the guy - and don't worry, they're adjusted to the point they won't kill him… but he will feel VERY sore in the morning."

RWBY blinked… before they all grinned. "I _knew_ you were our favorite teacher for a reason," Yang smirked as they all accepted the Dust cases. "First ya shot Cardin, now you help us take down Pinkerton!"

"You didn't get e'm from me," he said with a 'hush' gesture before stepping back to the bleachers with Sonja. "So… what did you do?"

"Deactivated his personal shields without him knowing."

"Seriously?"

"The man is literally built like a tank. I think he can survive four teenagers."

"Well, Arc, you actually have earned my respect! You stayed calm! Wish I could say the same for your sister team. They fucking SUCK."

Takeshi facepalmed. "Here we go…"

Yang jumped down and prepared to punch Ron in the face, but Ron limboed, then punted her in the face. "Round two! FIGHT!"

Ruby grinned as she switched her weapon into sniper mode. "EAT THIS!" She shouted, before firing.

Ron rolled his eyes, as he leaned back to dodge… before the round _turned_. "Wait what the fu-" It slammed into him, and he was sent _Flying_ back "GAAAAAAAHOOOHOHOOOOIIIII!"

*SLAM*

-and into the opposite side of the room into the wall, forming a perfectly Ron-shaped crater.

"Ten points for RWBY!" Jaden called out, holding up a '10' picture. "For being the first ones to actually land a hit! And an extra ten for making him do the Goofy Scream!"

That joy faded after he shot his head up, grinning. "ALRIGHT, WE'RE BACK IN BUSINESS!"

"I also made his pain receptors into pleasure receptors."

"Sweet Jesus, you're INSANE. That's just going to make him ENJOY getting hit!" Sonja grinned as Ron got out of the hole.

"Time to go a-murdering!" He drew his sword, laughing at the top of his lungs.

"You SURE that was a good idea?"

"Nope. But it WILL be funny."

"…GO RWBY YOU CAN DO THIS!" Jaden shouted, as he held up a banner with RWBY's name, each letter colored Red, White, Black and Yellow.

The captain sped up, cackling until Ruby managed to do something, in hindsight, that was VERY VERY stupid.

She swung Crescent Rose and made contact with Ron's back, blood coating the blade, with some blood ending up on Weiss' dress, Yang's coat and Blake's bow.

"Fuck." Sonja swore. "Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK."

At THAT moment, they remembered what Ron was.

Ex-Borg Drone.

Who still had _Nanoprobes_ in his blood!

"YOU SAID HE WAS BUILT LIKE A TANK!" Jaden shouted.

"They can't KILL him! They can still HURT him! That's why we never turn off his shields!" They needed an excuse. ANY excuse.

"I got this!" He said as he ran forward. "OKAY TIME OUT, PAUSE HANG ON!"

The fighting suddenly came to a stop, as everyone looked at Jaden. "Wait, what's going-"

"Okay, firstly I need all four of you to give me your weapons NOW!"

"What, why-"

"Look… Ron has an _extremely_ infectious blood borne disease," he explained. "He's like Patient Zero - the only way you can get infected is if his blood gets inside you! So I need to clean your weapons - and your dress Weiss - to make sure it doesn't spread, alright?"

Ruby looked at Crescent Rose, which was coated in his blood. Thankfully, after she cut him, he was forced into a wall, burying his head into it.

"Oh… I don't—"

"TRUST ME, he is the walking, talking, slaughtering apocalypse. And not just for his ability to kill lots of people hand-to-hand. His BLOOD kills. So… you're all going into decon."

Ruby wanted to protest… but then again, Jaden looked _very_ serious about this. "Okay…" she said, as she handed her weapon to him. And one by one, the others did the same.

* * *

"Bleach, industrial strength plasma coolant, molecular disintegrator, rubber ducky…"

Jaden looked at Sonja. "What the hell are you going to do… With a RUBBER DUCKY?!"

"Take a VERY relaxing bath."

"…You're insane. You're ALL INSANE!" Jaden paused, thinking things over. "…Why do I like this?"

"Insanity's a turn on for you?"

"How do you think Nena got a seat in _Morningstar's_ crew?" Jaden joked, "We're a bunch of wacko's in one way or another, why else do you think we fucking love you guys on the _Ra Cailum_?"

Sonja grinned. "It's what we do. So, what the hell's up with your girlfriend? Why was she trying to kill me?"

"She's not my girlfriend." Jaden scowled.

"You act so much like Takeshi and Luna I'm surprised you're not in bed right now. Or married."

"It's not _like_ that, Nena doesn't like me that way!" he exclaimed. "She's always looked up to me since we rescued her after her brothers died. We're all kinda like family that way. She told me she was just angry that it feels like I'm spending more time with you guys, and not with the _Morningstar_ crew."

"…same excuse Take used. You're in love."

"Screw you!"

"I would, but you've got a girlfriend."

* * *

Yang's arm was now in a cast, as Ron actually hit her hard enough to break through even _her_ aura. They were all covered in cuts and bruises, thankfully Ron's blood didn't get into them. "Hey, Blake. You've got blood in the corner of your eye."

The faunus blinked before Yang gestured to which eye. She touched the corner of her left eye, feeling dried blood. Only a small amount. "It's nothing. Probably yours or even Weiss'."

Yang nodded. "Likely. Still, what a fight, huh? We actually managed to land some hits on him!"

"Yes, only to find out that while he can make US bleed, we make HIM bleed, we're pretty much dead." Weiss quipped. "I've never seen anyone react so badly to blood diseases before."

"Wonder what it's called? Maybe we've heard of it."

"A bloodborne disease that gives someone superhuman abilities." Weiss deadpanned, suspicious. "No, something else is wrong with that man."

All the while, Ruby was curled up in the corner, crying and mumbling to herself about 'her baby.'

"At least he bled."

* * *

"I want EVERY fucking trace of my blood destroyed. Not even a protein chain or iron fragment. We cannot risk Borg technology coming to life here. Am I understood?"

"WHY are you telling us to do this?"

"One, Sonja, because it's YOUR fault to begin with. Two, Jaden, you gave them the ability to ACTUALLY cut me. So it's on you. Solve this."

"Actually, I just gave RWBY GN-enhanced Dust rounds," Jaden informed as he cleaned off Crescent Rose. "Nothing more… this thing's sharper than you gave it credit for, Ron." He finished wiping off the blade itself, giving the weapon a pat. "Don't worry, you'll see your mommy soon."

"You're… talking to it?"

"What can I say, it's funny. And it's a _she_ Ron."

"I don't talk to my sword. If it does not have actual intelligence, as in some form of reasoning, there's no point."

"You talk to Cassie."

"Cassie was an AI. There's a difference between talking to an inanimate object that has zero capacity to even hold animal intelligence-level VIs and a sentient AI. I don't find it funny, I find it idiotic. Just ONCE I'd like to find a universe that isn't screwed up."

Jaden blinked. "Wait, you've done the universal hopping thing before?"

"It was a back-and-forth thing back on the old ship. I don't want to talk about it."

"Fair enough," Jaden said as he collected the cleaned gear and Weiss's dress. "I'll go ahead and give these back to the girls. Be back soon - and don't go god-mode on the next class again, Ron."

"I've made sure Sonja can't shut my shields down again. If they can't control themselves when someone pisses them off, that's their problem."

"You're a dick."

"Better than being the source of a new Borg collective. So… hooked up with Jaden yet?"

"Not you, too!" Jaden groaned. "What is it with you people?!"

"Your looks at one another. You like one another, you just don't want to change your working relationship. Not to mention Nena's in love with Jaden and refuses to admit it."

Jaden stared gaping at Ron. "How—"

"I have two degrees in psychology, one being xenopsychology. PRE-assimilation. How do you think I'm able to piss off everybody? I know how to read people."

"That's not what's going on here!" Both Sonja and Jaden shouted at the same time, causing them to look at one another, before quickly glancing away, hiding the light blushes.

"Suuuuuuuuuuuuuure. Which of us has the degrees in psychology? I can tell if you're lying by reading blood pressure, body temp, skin coloration, even the dilation of your eyes. You're in love~"

"I'm out of here!" Jaden shouted grabbing RWBY's things, "I have no idea what you're talking about, you're malfunctioning or something, Nananananana…" His voice droning out as he left them alone.

"He'll either get it or he won't."

"You're an ass, Ron… "

"You're an ass, Ron…?" Ron repeated expectantly.

"…Sir."

* * *

Blake's eye twitched. Not out of annoyance, not out of irritation, it just… twitched.

"You ok, Blake?"

"I think so. I just have this damn twitch."

There was a knock at the door. "Who is it?"

"Greatest teacher of the year!" Came the familiar reply from the other side. "Got your gear back!"

Ruby dashed over to the door in a flurry of rose petals, _ripped_ the door from it's mounting and snatched Crescent Rose out of Jaden's arms before he could even blink.

"Well…" Jaden commented, looking at the discarded door. "That was new."

"It's okay precious, momma's here, momma's here." Ruby muttered, stroking the weapon.

"So, what's with his blood?" Weiss asked, accepting her dress back."There's nothing I know about that is that bad that would require such… drastic measures."

"Yeah… there _are_ diseases out there that are that bad. Ever heard of HIV?"

"No."

"It shuts down the immune system. Ron has a variant of it. He's immune, but anyone that gets infected will die REALLY fast from every virus you've even infected with."

Blake and Weiss shuddered at that image. "How did that happen?" Blake asked. "Some weird genetic mutation?"

"I don't know." Jaden shrugged. "That's his decision to tell people, and he hasn't told me."

"No disease is gonna take Team RWBY down!" Ruby put her arm around Weiss' shoulders. "Nothing's gonna take us down!"

Weiss blushed, then pushed Ruby off of her. "Get off!"

Jaden shook his head, oblivious to the real meaning behind the blush, but laughing internally anyway. "Well, I'll leave you girls be. You should be free of the monster for a little bit at least. Stay safe!"

Jaden left the room, not noticing Blake's twitch.

* * *

 **Blake: …What's going on with - _WE ARE THE BORG. RESISTANCE IS *STATIC* TUNA_ \- **

***Everyone takes a step away from Blake***

 **Ron the True Fan: Tuna. I HATE tuna. Can't it be something more editable?**

 **Ruby: Something's wrong with Blake and YOU'RE COMPLAINING ABOUT TUNA?!**

 **Ron the True Fan: It smells awful.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: SUSHI IS AWESOME!**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Well, things are going to go slightly less pear-shaped this time than last, but we've still got a problem.**

 **117Jorn: Don't worry Blake! *Dons hazmat gear* It's gonna be A-OKAY!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Vale**

 **2410, Federation Standard Calendar**

* * *

"While I am not one for strong language, Mr. Pinkerton, what the FUCK were you thinking?!"

Ron smirked. "Thinking? Thinking of what?"

Before Glynda could shout again, Ozpin rose his hand. "What I believe Glynda wants to know is, why you didn't inform us of your… condition, earlier, Mr. Pinkerton." He reasoned. "We have to think of the well being of the students… wouldn't want them getting infected with a disease long before they can even learn combat."

"You never asked."

Jaden rolled his eyes. "Look, it's like this," he informed. "We try to keep Ron's condition a secret - don't tell me there aren't people in the world who would try and exploit the disease if they got their hands on it, so we're very sensitive about who we share this info with. It's never really a problem since Ron usually wears a… specially designed piece of equipment which… enhances his Aura barrier to make it _very_ difficult to pierce, therefore difficult for his skin to be cut, therefore prevent a hazardous situation like earlier."

"Yet Ms Rose was able to hack through it."

"Ms Henderson is to blame for THAT debacle."

"It was shut off during the match," Sonja sighed. "I… well, _we_ wanted to try and, well… even the odds for RWBY, but we didn't really think Ruby's Scythe could actually pierce Ron's skin… which is _very_ hard in case you haven't noticed."

"And I gave them some… modded Dust rounds that actually let them _hit_ him for once, so… yeah." Jaden admitted as well. "So fuck-ups on both of our part. But on the bright side, the situation is contained, Weiss's clothes and RWBY's weapons were sterilized and cleaned of contaminants, all is good… and again, we apologize for the inconvenience, Professor."

Ozpin was silent for a minute, before he nodded. "Well, thank you for sharing this information with me," he said. "I assure you right now the knowledge on Mr. Pinkerton's condition shall not leave this room - I will ensure team RWBY does not share this information as well. Let us hope that this does not happen again."

"It won't. I've made sure she can't shut it off."

"And… as for your tendency to anger the students—"

"A great military strategist once said 'make your enemy angry, and you will know all that he will do'. I simply apply that to everyday life. Team JNPR's leader seems to have a brain in his head: he figured it out rather quickly. I plan on giving him a commendation."

"Kid's got potential," Jaden admitted, "Not much of a front-line fighter yet, but he's got the mind of a strategist in there. "

"Very well. You are all dismissed."

* * *

"WHY is he teaching again?!"

"Blame Coco."

Takeshi sighed. "It's just… I still have nightmares about the Academy. And he stars in all of them."

"Sounds like my kind of movie."

"Jaden… have you ever been chased through the streets of San Francisco by an enraged being that is absolutely relentless, will never stop hunting you and is hellbent on taking off your head?"

Jaden thought about it for a minute "Well there was that one time I was running away from a bunch of MSER-04 Anf's, and all I had on me was a rifle and White Phosphorous grenades." He informed.

Takeshi thought about that. "Ok, well, think something similar, only all the danger of those things is compressed into a single human being, and you don't even have the rifle and WP grenades," he said.

"Shit, what you'd do to piss him off _that_ much?"

"Dated his sister… now my Wife."

"…the more I hear about you guys and your insanity, the more I'm fucking _loving_ it."

* * *

 **Abandoned Warehouse District**

* * *

Soft clinks and clanks permeated the air, originating from a shadowy figure on a nearby rooftop. Mark Thyler performed last minute equipment checks on his gear, everything from his main weapon to his backups to his tech. He was clothed in streamlined combat armor, high-tech, capable of shrugging off a barrage from an Atlas military standard pulse rifle. It was painted a dark red, dark blue, and black, allowing Mark to easily blend into the night.

Satisfied that all his gear was in good working order, Mark pulled out a powerful, silenced pistol and moved in.

* * *

"Did you hear about Beacon's new teacher?" One henchman asked another.

"No, why?"

"I heard that he's insane." Guard 1 explained conspiratorially. "He's pissed off just about every team there and come out without a _scratch!_ "

"What? That's crazy!"

"So is he." The guard turned his head to look out into the night. "It's about time those brats got their asses handed to them, don't you think?"

The other guard was unable to reply, as he disappeared into the darkness without a sound.

"Right? Buddy-"

The guard suddenly found himself unable to draw in air. He gasped, and clawed at his throat. Without warning, a pair of strong arms wrapped around his neck and he found himself pulled into the darkness.

A sickening _crunch_ followed a second later.

* * *

Mark wiped his gauntlet off as he snuck into the warehouse proper. Earlier scouting had revealed that there was a second, underground floor, with a large freight elevator in the middle connecting the two. In total, there were thirty defenders on site, of which Mark had eliminated two.

Frankly, the warehouse wasn't very well lit, with plenty of boxes creating shadows to hide in. Precision shots, broken necks, and application of his semblance allowed Mark to take out the men on the surface floor one by one.

Mark moved in on his twelfth target, grabbed the man's head with his right gauntlet, and activated it. The man couldn't even scream as aura and his head were smashed by Mark's powerful crushgaunt.

Suddenly, blaring klaxons went off and bullets flew at him, splashing against Mark's aura. Glancing around cover, Mark saw that the people on the lower floor had finally taken notice.

Instead of groaning, Mark smiled, holstering his pistol and drawing his custom rifle: Calamity.

Calamity was a Variable High Powered Bladed Assault Rifle. It was rounded, with very few straight lines. The stock was skeletal, capable of being collapsed and saving weight. A small red dot sight rested on top and a vertical grip, molded to his hand, helped with stability.

He popped out of cover in a instant, putting out a barrage of bullets that cut through two men's aura, sending them tumbling to the floor. Mark ducked back into cover as a flurry of fire returned back to him.

Mark grunted, then pulled a small, grenade-like object from his belt and tossed it.

"Incoming!" One of the leaders shouted, and the men ducked for cover… Only for the grenade to land far short and shatter on impact.

The defenders laughed. "For a good shot, you're a terrible throw!" One taunted.

Suddenly, the smoke from the grenade exploded outwards, filling the warehouse far faster than one simple smoke grenade should have, and they lost their target.

"Shit." A Wolf Faunus lieutenant swore. "Stick close and be quiet, I need to liste-"

The man screamed in pain as the air pressure around both pairs of ears dropped, causing a loud _pop_ that wreaked havoc on his sensitive hearing, and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious from the pain.

"What the shit!?"

A trio of grunts dropped as a barrage of fire cut through their armor and cut them down.

"Contact right!" A lieutenant screamed, and the diminished group, numbering twelve, opened fire at the unseen source.

"STOP HIDING YOU FUCK!" A nervous, deranged nineteen year-old screamed. "COME OUT AND FIGHT US!"

"Ok."

The boy screamed as a voice whispered in his ear, before a barrel was shoved against his head, bypassed his aura and blew him apart in a shower of blood and grey matter.

The smoke suddenly cleared. Mark twisted the front of his rifle forty degrees to the left then pulled. In response, a trigger and guard appeared in front of the vertical grip, turning the front and back into a pair of pistols. A barrage of fire sent three men diving for cover and another to the ground, knocked out courtesy of a heavy concussion round.

A scream filled the air as one of the goons fired a rocket at Mark. He didn't dodge, as the missile suddenly swerved and slammed into the cover that the earlier trio dived into, breaking their already weakened auras and killing them, damaging a structure support as well.

Five of the remaining goons ran at Mark with melee weapons, hoping to get lucky close up. Mark shot one in the face, causing him to stumble, shot another in his knees, then the remaining three were on him.

His weapon shifted again. The barrels shifted ninety degrees back, and the blades under them started unfolding, extending out, turning the two pistols into a pair of gunblades

Those five never stood a chance, killed through precision strikes, disarming moves, or other tricks.

Mark grinned as the last of the smoke dispelled. Which was promptly wiped away when a pair of heavy bolts slammed into him, sending him flying through, a wall into the night.

The hunter groaned as he picked himself up. "Should've seen that one coming." He looked up.

Stepping out of the warehouse was a pair of Atlesian Paladins. "Wow, Atlas needs to keep better track of their stuff."

Shifting Calamity back into rifle form, he charged.

* * *

"If I haven't said it before, I'll say it again - you're the best teacher in Beacon, period."

Jaden chuckled as he dropped another case filled with GN-modded Dust Rounds in the locker room where Ruby, Weiss and Yang checked over their gear. "Eh, I had shitty teachers as a kid, least I can do is try to be better ones than they were," he stated. "Though where's Blake? I fixed Gambol Shroud for her."

"In bed. She said she was sick. Looked pale, too."

"Really? I'll have to deliver it personally. Have fun with Ron!"

"FUN?! That guy's tougher than a Paladin! I bet he could DESTROY one all on his own!" Jaden had seen the mechs. Nowhere NEAR MS-level, so… Yeah, he probably could.

Granted, he was a living cheat: shields, superhuman strength…only weaknesses were his open subspace link and his blood.

Still, the Paladins were too big for true urban warfare. Downsize them by half and they'd be viable for scenarios where MS would be considered overkill. He was gonna have to try and obtain one of those things to do some work on them.

Jaden left RWY to head to their room to find Blake. Arriving at the door, she knocked once. "Blake? Its Jaden! I fixed Shroud for ya!" There was silence on the other end. "Blake? Hello?" Still silence.

"…Okay Blake, I am opening the door, I hope your decent." He said, as he picked the lock, and opening the door. Inside he did find Blake - who was still in her PJ's, however her skin was pale… _extremely_ pale, almost like…

…the Borg he encountered on the holodeck…

' _Oh fucking shit,_ ' He thought, exploding into motion, pulling out an isolinear tag, and putting it on Blake. "Jaden to _Ra Cailum_ , emergency two to beam up directly to sick bay, under quarantine!" He announced on the comm badge.

" _Copy that, locking on. Energizing._ " The two disappeared in showers of light, reappearing in sickbay.

"What happen—" Rutia stopped, seeing Blake. "Never mind, I can see what happened, question is HOW? You two deconned everything!"

"I don't know! Call Ron up here; he's the Borg expert!"

* * *

Ron ran his eye over Blake's body, the cybernetics scanning her down to the bone. "Odd."

"What?"

"The implants are forming, but her immune system is still trying to fight off the assimilation process."

Jaden didn't know what Ron was going on about and it showed. "Ok, phase one of the assimilation process is the injection of nanoprobes. They suppress the immune system and rewrite the victim's DNA like a virus. Only here, the nanoprobes are making the implants during stage one. And I've checked the default programming on the nanoprobes: they're fine. Maybe it's their aura, seeing as nanoprobes can be affected by different kinds of radiation."

"Well… that would make sense," Jaden mused, "From what I understand, Aura's very purpose is to protect its users… it might be buffing up her immune system. It probably slows the assimilation process down… this means we can still help her, right?"

"She's fucked." Jaden looked at Ron, then to Rutia, who confirmed it with a nod.

"The implants are taking over vital functions: one of them even acts like a pacemaker for her heart, keeping the beats regular." The doctor explained. "It's like rust eating metal: you remove it, the structure weakens further as a result. It's why I was never able to get most of the implants out of Ron's body. Sonja and I had to rewrite the implants to make sure he was freed from their influence. Even if we can stop the process, she can never return to Remnant."

Jaden closed her eyes for a moment, before sighing. "So it's either let her die, or take a chance to save her and she can never go home…" He muttered. "…I say we do it. If nothing else, I'd feel better knowing we at least _tried_ to save her."

"Alrighty, then, I guess that means I'm up for reprogramming duty." Blake twitched as her skin began to shift under her cheek. "Three, two, one…" A sharp implant punched through the skin before blossoming like some technological flower.

"Stage 3. Not much time before the suppressors develop." Ron's tubules punched through his knuckles, then he injected them into Blake's neck. "Establishing neural connection. Keep an eye on my EKG readouts. If Blake and I share the same brainwave patterns, I want you to hit us both with an omicron particle burst."

Jaden sighed, knowing what _that_ means "Right… let's just cross our fingers and hope it doesn't come to that." he muttered.

* * *

Takeshi groaned. "You're KIDDING me."

" _Sadly, no. Some of Ron's blood entered her body via her eye. Poor girl's being assimilated as we speak._ "

"That's just perfect. I blame Ron for this."

" _HOW can you blame him? Sonja shut off his shields, Ruby cut his back open and Jaden made it worse by trying to even the score!_ "

"I blame him because this is the exact kind of situation that his luck draws in like a magnet!" Takeshi groaned. "I never realized it at first, but the man is cursed to live in interesting times… and he drags everyone around him along for the ride."

" _Well, you're screwed for it now. Lay low and—_ "

"Hey! Who's Professor Yamato talking to?"

Takeshi jumped in surprise, seeing Ruby and the rest of her team looking at him.

As Ron was upstairs, so to speak, his class was cancelled.

Resulting in this.

"Talk to you later," Takeshi said, before hitting his commbadge to end the call. He did _not_ want to deal with those three right now, but he also didn't want to beam up where everyone could see him, which left one choice.

He bolted, running for the Bullhead pads. If he could get to Vale, he could get lost in the crowds, and then beam up from a random alleyway.

"HEY!" Ruby chased after him, using her semblance to chase after him. He had to use a motion accelerator to get out of Beacon's grounds, which played hail-mary with his insides.

He wasn't Ron: he was going to pay for that later.

Or now, as he coughed up a small amount of blood. "How the hell can Ron DO that? Better question, how can ANYONE do that?"

Right now, that didn't matter. Ruby was chasing after him, and from what he could see, Yang and Weiss were joining in the chase, too. He had to lose them, and quickly. He jumped into a Bullhead, figuring out the controls fairly easily and began flying it towards Vale.

Takeshi hit his commbadge again. " _Ra Cailum_ , I have a problem."

" _So do we: we're trying to deal with Blake's nanoprobe infestation. So until you lose them, you're on your own._ "

"FUCK!"

" _Attention, bullhead: land immediately. You are not cleared for flight over Vale._ "

Takeshi sighed. "Cursed to live in interesting times," he muttered, setting the autopilot to lower altitude, turn, and set down in the Emerald Forest. "I guess Ron's not the only one with that curse."

With the autopilot set, Takeshi stood up from the pilot's chair, opened the rear hatch, waited for a rooftop to pass fairly close below him, and jumped onto it. He rolled slightly with the landing, and then stood.

He needed to get down to street level, and fast.

Take found the stairs and raced down, even as he heard another bullhead roar overhead. "Shit, shit."

"I KNOW YOU'RE HERE!" A _very_ angry Yang yelled.

Takeshi made his way to street level and started running, even as three pairs of feet landed behind him. Take spared a glance behind him and immediately regretted it.

Weiss and Ruby were angry, sure, but Yang? Her hair had become _flames_ and she looked like she could destroy a city.

"Shit!" The adrenaline junkie darted around a corner and down an alley, activating a stealth module as he did.

Team RWY darted by, racing past Take's hidden position. Disengaging the cloak, Takeshi ran back the way he came.

* * *

"Where did he go, which way did he fucking go?!"

"Okay, okay, hang on," Ruby panted. "Why… why are we chasing the professor?"

"He's acting suspicious!"

"He was just talking on some weird scroll," Ruby tried to reason. "How is that suspicious?"

"Blake's _missing_ Ruby! He might know what's going on here!"

"I just feel like we're approaching this the wrong way," Ruby sighed.

"Blake is missing, the jackass is missing and Jaden is missing. ALL of them are linked in one way or another and Yamato arrived same day! That means he's involved!"

"Couldn't we like, just… _talk_ to him?" Ruby asked. "Maybe this has something to do with… that stuff in Pinkerton's blood maybe?"

"We need to find him to talk to him, first! And he ran!"

"Ok, you got a point there, sis. Let's split up: we can find him faster!"

* * *

Turning the corner, Takeshi ran straight into another person.

"Oh, sorry." Take apologized.

"It's no-"

"WHERE ARE YOU!?"

Takeshi flinched and went to take off again, but a hand gripped his arm.

"Hold on."

Suddenly, a wind seemed to pick up, as the stranger pulled Take to the side. RWY darted around the corner yet again, yet did not notice the two despite being out in the open.

"How did you do that?" Take asked as the team disappeared. "A stealth semblance?"

He shook his head. "I bent the water molecules in the air around us. My semblance is atmospheric manipulation." He extended his hand. "Mark Thyler."

Takeshi took it. "Takeshi Yamato. If you don't mind me asking, why did you help me?"

Mark smirked. "The reputation of Miss Xiao Long is well known. No one deserves that. Now, follow me. I know a place where you can get to safety."

"Uh, I just need to get into a nice spot out of sight of… anyone. THEN I'll just disappear."

"Riiiiiight." Mark said skeptically as he pulled the older man into an alleyway. "Well, I'll get you somewhere, then—"

"Ah HAH!"

The two froze and turned towards Weiss Schnee, rapier drawn.

"Oh, great, the Ice Queen." Mark muttered, subtly stepping in front of Takeshi and dropping into a combat stance.

"Why does _everyone_ call me that?!"

"Comes with the family, Iceheart."

Normally, Takeshi would be trying to run.

After all, he WASN'T Ron. That inhuman bastard, pre and post, could outrun most people.

So trying to run or breaking the Prime Directive.

As his commander would say, fuck the Prime Directive. "Found you!" The rest of Team RWBY descended on Takeshi before he called out.

" _Ra Cailum_ , emergency beam out!" Mark, touching his jacket, was caught in the beam, as was Ruby's cloak, Weiss' sword and the very tips of Yang's shotgun-gauntlets, sending them all skyward.

The group materialized on the transporter pad. The Remnant natives were _very_ surprised to find themselves in an entirely different place.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?"

Take sighed. "Welcome to the _Ra Calium,_ " he deadpanned as phaser rifles were shoved in their faces.

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: WHY must people break the Prime Directive? (QUACK! QUACK!) Oh, fuck. (Flees from flock of AMX 40s)**

 **Yang: … the fuck was that?**

 **117Jorn: You'd have to play World of Tanks to understand… I'm more of a field mouse guy. *climbs inside Panzer VIII Maus* BECAUSE MICE HUNT DUCKS! *BOOM***

 **Takeshi Yamato: I will likely never play World of Tanks - Tanks involve intricate combat strategies, whereas I'm almost always 'I have a plan: Attack'. Anyway, things are definitely heating up over here.**

 **Ruby: YAY! Back on the Ra Cailum!**

 **Weiss: Should we… help him?**

 **Ron the True Fan: (BANG!) I am being nibbled to death by ducks!**

 **117Jorn: Hang in there Ron! THE MICE ARE COMING!**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Oh, he's fine.**

 **Ron the True Fan: What good are Mice gonna - *swarm of Maus come into view* … Oh… _Those_ mice… **

**Ja Ne!**


	14. Chapter 14

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

 **2410, Federation Standard Calendar**

* * *

The four Remnant natives were obviously rather surprised to no longer be in Vale.

And when Takeshi had taken them to a viewport to show them the planet Remnant below them, they were even more surprised.

"Wow."

"How… high are we?" Weiss asked. "Dust can't work in the upper atmosphere."

"We're 50000 kilometers above the surface of Remnant. Standard orbit over a peculiar M-Class planet. I'd have Ron explain, but my captain is busy. VERY busy."

"In short, you're _in space,_ " Everyone turned to see Jaden as he walked inside. "Girls, glad to see you… I know you have a lot of questions, so… we'll answer what we can." He took a seat. "Fire away."

"Why didn't you just… say hello?"

"Uh… we have a rule against that," Takeshi informed. "And Ron's… anal about the Prime Directive: you follow it until it gets in the way of getting the job done. Really, we weren't going to let anyone know we were here."

"But why?! Your stuff is so AWESOME!"

"Well, the Federation - the people who built this monster - don't want to share their tech with people who haven't already risen to space and developed FTL like they have," Jaden informed, "It usually leads to bad things whenever they do… "

"Bad?" Mark asked.

"Destroying themselves bad."

"Oh." The young man thought about it. "I can see that."

Yang didn't care about any of this. "Where is Blake?"

"Uh, this is where—"

"Where." Yang's eyes turned red. "Is." Her hair lit on fire. "SHE?!"

"Girl, you have no idea where you are." Cassie walked into the observation room, holding a PADD. "You're in space. Your aura is useless against direct energy weapons and we…" A force field went up around Yang. "Can contain you _easily_. So, either calm down or I beam you into space for about five seconds, then beam you into the brig. Which is made of materials as hard as my boyfriend's body."

"Boyfriend?"

"She's dating Ron," Takeshi replied.

"I can see how."

"Xiao Long, have you ever been without air? Without being underwater?"

"…No."

"You're going to get that feeling if you don't shut the fuck up. Until recently, I WAS this ship. I still have control over EVERY system, from life support to gravity to transporters! So—"

"Cassie…" Jaden groaned, glaring at the A.I. "Don't terrify the guests." He then looked back to Yang. "Apologies, Cassie is in a bad mood, and it's kinda connected to Ron and Blake… remember that virus we had to sterilize your gear from? Somehow some of Ron's blood got into Blake's eye, and it's affecting her body. Right now Ron is trying to help save Blake from getting worse."

"Is… she gonna be alright?" Ruby asked.

Jaden sighed. "Well… we have a 50/50 chance this will work," he informed, "but even if it _does_ work… Blake won't be able to return to Remnant."

"And why the hell not?!" Yang shouted.

"Because it's not just a _virus,_ " he explained. "That's just what we called it… her condition… _Ron's_ condition is much, much worse… "

He glanced to Cassie. "Could you pull up a hologram of a Borg Drone?" he asked.

Cassie nodded, snapping her fingers before a holographic image of a standard Drone appeared before them - surprising the others. "This… is what Ron _used_ to be," he explained. "A Borg Drone… the Borg are a race of machine alien-zombies whose sole purpose is the assimilation of all life into their group-consciousness collective. Killing billions in their way, and capturing billions more to turn into these… Ron was captured, and turned into one, but thanks to his crew's efforts they were able to save him… but at a cost."

"I'll spare you the details, but 70% of his body is more machine than man now," he continued. "His blood is filled with small Nanoscopic machines called Nanoprobes, where - unless reprogrammed by him personally - will reproduce and continue their original programming - assimilate whatever lifeform unfortunate enough to have them inside them. The probes quickly start building machinery within someone's body, and replaces vital organs. Ron can't have his removed… and neither can Blake, since the Nanoprobes had already taken root within her body."

"Monty in heaven…" Mark muttered.

"So… you see the situation," Jaden stated. "If we were to let Blake go, we risk the chance of others getting infected, and putting your whole planet at risk, and I know you wouldn't want that. So she must stay here to keep your world safe… I know it's not what you want to hear, but that's that."

"But… She can't leave!"

"She has no choice. The Borg technology cannot be left behind in this universe."

Ruby shook her head. "No! She's staying here!"

"For fuck's sake, little girl, GROW UP! This is beyond your control! Actually… it's your fault to BEGIN with. You cut his back, so when his blood ended up inside her body, YOU caused this."

"Cassie—"

"Shut up, you… mean lady!"

Cassie scoffed. "You need to learn something, Rose: we've seen things that would make you whimper in fear. We've fought things that make the Grimm look trivial. You do not intimidate me. None of you do."

"Cassie!" Jaden shouted, glaring at her… and to his credit, actually caused Cassie to flinch at the glare. "Calm. The Fuck. Down!"

"It's her damn fault Ron's doing this! He's risking his damn life because of her-"

"YOU THINK SHE DOESN'T KNOW THAT?!" Jaden snapped, causing Cassie to step back at his roar. "Remember, one of her own teammates is in the same boat as Ron! I think she's suffering _enough_ as is! Look… Ron will be fine, Blake will be fine, we just gotta have faith in the two."

Cassie was silenced, as Jaden turned his attention back to Ruby who was on the verge of tears. "Ruby… look, I know it hurts," he said. "But trust me… sometimes things happen that are just… out of our control. It doesn't mean you're weak or anything… all you can do, is learn to live with it… look, when Blake comes out of there, we _can_ let her come down to Beacon, so long as we have Ron and some of the others around to prevent further… incidents, but when the _Ra Cailum_ leaves Remnant, she will have to come with us… I'm sorry, I really am."

* * *

Screaming was heard within the dark halls. Blake had no idea where she was, only that things were very, VERY wrong.

" _So long have I waited… and now I have my chance. We are the beginning. The end. The one who is many. We are the Borg, Blake Belladonna. And you are MINE._ "

The Faunus fled through the metal halls, finding nothing but screaming men and women, nothing but suffering.

"Why?" Blake screamed in fear and anguish. "What the fuck is going on?!"

"You're in your mind," Blake turned around, before spotting Pinkerton standing behind her. "Well, _we're_ in your mind… you've been infected by nanoprobes from my bloodstream, and now you're being assimilated by the Borg Collective - if you want to live through this and maintain your individuality, listen up!"

"What… What are you—HOW are you—"

"Shut up and focus. Focus on me. Do NOT _think_ about anything _but_ me. I will explain when we're done dealing with the FUCKING WHORE!" He shouted down a corridor.

" _How quant, Ronald_." The _very_ annoying, seductive voice replied, with a hint of annoyance. " _You're still alive_."

Ron scoffed. "Better than being your slave. Still can't find that code that produces your ass, but now that it's active, I'll just control-alt-delete your Borg ass, your _majesty_."

" _You know as well as I… that you cannot kill the Borg._ " The voice said, as a feminine machine-like woman stepped down the halls. " _She will just be the beginning… once I have her, and you… then I'll take your ship… your crew… the planet… and our collective will be reforged. Resistance is, as it always has been… futile._ "

"Not today. Today, I fucking kill you once and for all."

* * *

"EKG readings have spiked. Brainwave activity has jumped 90%."

"He's slowing it down, meaning we can get to work." Rutia smiled that smile that _so_ many people feared. "Jaden, get me the kit with the hand emblem on it."

"Hand?"

"Red, curved, kinda creepy-looking?"

Jaden found the kit, seeing that the emblem did, indeed, look like a stylized hand.

"What the hell's it mean?"

"Symbol of the Borg Collective."

"Okay," he grabbed the kit, handing it to Rutia. "So what's in the kit?"

"Highly specialized tools. I had to develop them to help Ron, so they might help Blake." She opened it, taking out a submolecular probe before removing part of Blake's top and gently stabbing it into her skin like a fetal needle over one of the larger implants. "I've got a connection. Jaden, access the console and run program Dominatus. Let's see how this Borg shit likes fucking with me NOW."

* * *

Inside the mental world of Blake's Borg-affected mind, the green halls seemed to flicker, barely showing more gentle walls, some even looking like home.

"Rutia, you magnificent bitch!"

The Queen screamed. " _I will NOT be denied_!"

Ron gave the Borg bitch the finger. "Kiss my ass, you cybernetic slut! Now… where did I put the CAD command… AHA!" He pulled out the digital/mental representation of the kill command.

Which just so _happened_ to be an M202A1 FLASH launcher. "Time to die, bitch!"

Ron fired a rocket, but the Queen's representation dodged, and the 'rocket' hit a Borg-fied wall, vaporizing the malevolent programming/virus.

"Of course things can't be that easy." Ron muttered, dodging around return 'fire', allowing the kill-code to hit bad Borg… things.

Ron, of course, continued to spam rockets from the launcher.

Because who DOESN'T love rockets?

…Tanks, but they don't count.

"DIE, YOU BORG BITCH!"

 _"I SHALL NEVER DIE! I AM IMMORTAL! I AM BORG-"_

A slash cut her off. "In the name of Monty, shut the fuck up."

Blake, armed with a mental and virtual representation of Gambol Shroud, let off a flurry of slashes against the Queen, chiping away at her virtual defenses.

"That's right, keep her occupied." Ron aimed the overkill weapon at the Queen, grinning madly. "FUCKING DIE!"

* * *

"A third brainwave pattern? That almost reminds me of the time where Tuvok had that parasite in his brain. Except I KNOW that has to be the bitch."

"Bitch?"

"The Borg are organized like an insect colony: drones, warriors…"

"With a queen at the apex." Jaden realized. "You're telling me that the queen bitch of the Borg is in Blake's head?"

"Probably in every Liberated Drone's head," Informed Rutia's red-haired assistant. "There's always a piece of dormant programming in every Drone we liberate. We're never able to analyze it, but I would bet that it's a piece of the Queen. Why she leaves it there, I have no clue."

The third reading began to fluctuate, but so did Blake's. "We need to pull the plug. Either the Queen's winning the war in there, or Ron's gone rocket-happy."

"…Rocket-happy?"

"Borg anti-virus takes the form of an M202 FLASH launcher."

Jaden grinned. "…I LOVE you guys! You're all CRAZY!"

* * *

"FUCKING DIE ALREADY! I have better things to do then fuck around with you!"

Blake growled. "Do I have to line up the shot for you, Pinkerton?!" Blake shifted Gambol into chain scythe form, and managed to wrap it around the Queen's form, pinning her in place. "SHOOT HER!"

Ron fired a full barrage of rockets, all hitting the queen bitch. "Bigger slut than Catherine." Ron muttered as the smoke cleared, revealing a utterly annihilated patch of code. "And she was a SLUT!"

"Huh?"

"Historical figure, don't expect you to get it." Ron sighed. "And thank god that's over with. I am just about DONE with dealing with her. Also, be prepared to wake up to some things that you didn't have before."

Blake sighed. "I know, I saw some of your memories. Right now, I'm prepared to face it. Let's go."

He fired another rocket into the code for good measure. "I hate that bitch."

"Just get out of my head."

* * *

 **Fifteen Minutes Later**

 **Fleet Wardroom**

* * *

"You know," Mark commented, looking down on Remnant again. "I don't think I'm ever gonna get used to this."

"Yeah…" Yang agreed, wrapping an arm around Ruby.

"I wonder what else this ship has." Weiss pondered. "From what I've been able to read, they're pretty advanced. FTL, immense power generation, moneyless economy…"

"Teleporters?" Yang cut in.

"Oh, what about antigravity technology?!" Ruby offered, exited. "Or—"

"If you want a comprehensive list, Ruby…" The entire group jumped to find Blake entering the room, wearing a blue jumpsuit of some kind. "You can ask me."

Ruby screamed, seeing the implants on the Faunus' face. "Blake!" She covered her gaping mouth. "I had no idea…"

"It's fine. Word of advice: NEVER have Captain Pinkerton inside your head."

"Why, is his mind worse?"

"Yang, he had half his brain scooped out and replaced with cybernetics while he was still _awake_. And I _relived_ those experiences."

"I… I take it you picked up some of his memories while he was… helping you?" Weiss asked, even as she turned even paler than normal at the thought of what had happened to Ron.

"Yup."

"How are you feeling?" Yang asked.

"Like shit." She said in complete deadpan.

"You know?" Mark spoke up. "I'd like to meet these Borg." He grinned angrily, before RWBY's faces of horror could blossom fully. "So I can fuck their shit up."

"You and everyone else in the multiverse, brother." Jaden said as he and Takeshi entered the room.

"We first encountered them back in 2365 in our universe," Take explained. "And they made their first real push against us two years later. We've been fighting them ever since."

"What happened with the first encounter?" Yang asked.

"I don't know all the details of the 2365 encounter," Takeshi replied. "But in 2367, they abducted Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the _Enterprise_ -D, and… Cassie, can you show our guests recordings of the battle of Wolf-359?"

"Sure thing." Cassie stepped from out of nowhere. "If you would turn your attention to the big screen…"

They didn't need to watch the whole thing. "Stop it." Mark ordered, and the massacre stopped as the _Saratoga_ died. "We get the picture." He fixed the Starfleeters with a stare. "I assume that doesn't happen anymore? 'Cause you wouldn't be here if it did."

"Took dumb luck, but we destroyed the Cube over Earth," Takeshi informed. "Took us over a year to clean up the debris. We managed to get Picard back, too. We've learned from that experience, meaning we have a bit of an easier time dealing with them these days, but the Borg have learned, too, and they've adapted a bit. It's a lot harder than it used to be to liberate Drones from the Collective - furthermore, with Picard, the only thing he had to keep from his assimilation process was the memories; hard to deal with sometimes, but nothing major, whereas currently… well, Ron and Blake are good examples."

"Come on, Blake can't have—"

"My liver is completely infested with implants, my lungs can reprocess Co2, my eyes and skin are no longer affected by UV radiation, and…" She walked over to an arms locker, removing a type-2 phaser before tossing it to Ruby.

"Shoot me."

"Uh…"

"Shoot. Me."

Ruby was a bit nervous about it, but she did as requested, figuring out the trigger and firing at Blake - only for the beam to stop harmlessly about a foot away from her.

"Ah, yes," Takeshi remarked. "Reactive shielding. Borg and ex-Borg alike are NOTORIOUS for that."

"What does that mean?" Yang asked.

"Apart from Assimilation, the Borg's main schtick is Adaptation," Takeshi explained. "Hit them with an energy weapon once, it works just fine. Hit them with it twice, the second strike is a bit less effective. Hit them enough times without remodulating the frequency of the weapon, they adapt to that frequency, and can block it without taking damage. And ex-Borg nowadays retain that Adaptation ability."

"Like your asshole of a—" _ZAP_! "OW!"

"I might not be the ship, but I can still make your day suck." Cassie threatened. "So shut up."

Takeshi backed away from the AI with the Improved Innovade body, muttering 'yandere' under his breath.

"So, in summary, Blake can never go back down to Remnant again?"

Jaden nodded. "Not without Starfleet supervision, no."

"Besides, Remnant's getting worse." Blake commented. "Anywhere else could be better."

"I agree with you wholeheartedly." Mark agreed.

"Really?" Weiss questioned. "And why is that?"

"Princess, I have _lived_ in Remnant's underworld for seven years. This is a _lot_ better."

Blake blinked. "Oh, FUCK. My parents. What am I going to tell them?"

* * *

 **Thirty Minutes Later**

* * *

Ruby was a weapons nut.

This was well-known.

But the _Ra Cailum_ held a database FULL of weapons that she'd never seen before. Seriously, how could she NOT at least _try_ them?

And it looked like she wasn't the only one. Mark Thyler, the bounty hunter that had gotten pulled up with them, had descended on the new tech like a rabid dog.

Right now, the two of them, plus Weiss, were in a workshop of sorts, improving their weapons, as it seemed they weren't gonna be allowed back down on Remnant again.

"So, what do I want?" Mark muttered, flipping through specs on a PADD while Calamity sat before him. "Particle weapons would help _so_ much on ammo consumption and deal with anyone _near_ this level of tech."

"What about your blades?" Ruby asked, pointing at the design schematic for his weapon. "Against their shields, they wouldn't be able to do much if you were stuck in close combat."

He nodded. "Well, they do have monomolecular blades, but…" He fiddled with some controls. "If I make the particle weapons plasma-disruptors, I can have the punch at range, and if I need it, I can wrap the blades in that plasma to help burn through shields. Also helpful if I need to cauterize wounds."

"Very nice." Ruby said approvingly.

Mark smiled. "Why, thank you, Miss Rose. Your weapon is nice too."

Ruby blushed. "Just call me Ruby."

Weiss shook her head at her younger teammate's antics, and frowned slightly, too. She didn't like how close the two seemed to be getting…

"So, Miss Schnee," Mark said, breaking Weiss out of her thoughts with a start. "What are your thoughts about all of…" He waved indiscriminately at the window, which showed a breathtaking view of Remnant's night-side, and the kingdom of Mistral. "This?"

"Well, it's certainly surprising," Weiss replied. "I mean, we've never been able to achieve spaceflight because Dust stops working in the upper atmosphere. But to learn that there are people not just from outer space, but an entirely different _universe_ … it's definitely an eye-opener."

"Well…" Mark rubbed the back of his head, hits of embarrassment showing on his cheeks. "I've always been a bit of sci-fi geek, Iwasafanfictionwriter," He mumbled, too fast for Weiss or Ruby to pick up, but she giggled nonetheless. "And multiverse theory was something that I sorta believed in."

"I see," Weiss replied. "Well… still, it's amazing all the same, and even though we're technically being forced to go along for the ride, I _am_ somewhat looking forward to it." She sighed. "I just hope Winter understands…"

"Winter?" Ruby asked.

"My older sister," Weiss informed. "The only member of my family I'm really close to, and the only one I'm thinking of telling about this… Maybe my mother, as well, but I'm not as close to her as I am Winter…"

"Could be worse. You really could take your family with you. I think I saw a Riza Pinkerton on the crew manifest. Think that's the asshole's sister?"

"It's his sister." Weiss replied. "I don't think Pinkerton is a common name. What about you, Ruby?"

"Well, Yang's already here." The young readhead started. "I'd definitely tell Dad, and Uncle Qrow as well. What about you, Mark? Who'd you tell?"

The bounty hunter sighed and stared out at the planet below. "Nobody. I really don't have anyone to tell. No family, no real lovers…" Long-forgotten memories seemed to surface. "Nobody."

Ruby teared up, eeped, and, in a flurry of rose petals, gave the lone hunter a big hug. "I feel so sorry for you!" Chibi-style tears fell down her cheeks.

"Opoh!" Mark suddenly found himself unable to breathe. "Ruby," he wheezed. "Need… Air…"

As Ruby let go, profusely apologizing, Weiss frowned again.

She _really_ didn't like how close they were getting…

* * *

"Man." Yang commented as she stared up at the _Ra Calium's_ massive warp core. "That's impressive."

"Matter/antimatter reaction," Blake informed. "Makes Dust look like child's play. This thing powers everything on the ship, from life support to the warp engines. We are the most powerful ship in Starfleet for a reason."

"You say 'we.' " Yang shook her head. "You're acting like you're a part of the crew already."

"I am, Yang," Blake told her. "I can't stay anywhere without this ship nearby. I can't live a Huntress' life again. I'm accepting that."

"Come on, Blake."

"I can't go back to Remnant. Not without an escort. I won't be finishing my education at Beacon, either. I'll ask Captain Pinkerton to handle that for me: he might be an asshole, but he is the best combat teacher in Starfleet. Ask the crew: he taught them all after taking command of the original _Ra Cailum_."

"Not bad."

The two basked in the sound and light of the core for a moment.

"So… what's this about your parents?"

"They live on Menagerie. I stayed in the White Fang while they left. My father used to be their leader, but he stepped down. Maybe he saw where they were going. Doesn't really matter. I was an idiot."

"That's Pinkerton's influence talking."

"Doesn't stop it from being the truth. I was blind and stupid."

"But will you tell them?"

Blake sighed. "I'll tell them. Don't know if they'll accept me as I am or for what I did, but at least it'll provide closure."

* * *

 **That Night**

 **Quarters assigned to Team RWBY - Ruby and Weiss' room**

* * *

"Ruby, I… I wasn't really comfortable, seeing you glomp Mark earlier…" Weiss said.

"Huh?" Ruby blinked, tilting her head "Why not? I mean, he's like the only person I met so far who loves guns as much as I do! He even showed me this collection he has earlier! Snipers, SMG's, Hardlight Swords, all sorts of neat stuff!"

"Um, well…" Weiss began, blushing fiercely. "You… uhh… that is, I…" She sighed. "Oh, fuck it."

She then pushed Ruby against a wall, barely giving Ruby time to let out a startled gasp before she pressed their lips together. The Red-headed huntress's eyes widened in shock as her body tensed at the sudden kiss, her mind going numb in surprise. When she didn't return the kiss, Weiss's eyes widened in worry before she backed up.

"I-I'm so… sorr…" she sputtered, before turning around to run. When she did, Ruby's mind reorganized itself.

"Weiss, wait!"

"F-Forget it, I-" The Schnee heiress saw a flurry of rose petals, and when she blinked Ruby was standing in front of her, who then proceeded to mash her face into Weiss', and immediately resumed the kiss.

This time it was Weiss' eyes which widened in shock, but it only lasted a second as she returned the kiss, gently enfolding Ruby in her arms.

Eventually, reluctantly, their lips parted. "Ruby… I… I love you…" Weiss stated.

"I… I love you, too, Weiss…" Ruby said, with a bright red blush over her face. "I… I, uhh… geez, had like the biggest crush on you when we met, b-but I didn't think you'd like… um, like, well… a, uh… d-dust-brain like me… "

"I have to admit, I didn't, at first," Weiss informed. "You were a ditzy, sugar-crazed klutz… and you still are, mostly… but… well, over the past few months, I saw what you can do, and you've… grown on me, I guess… and I… I can't imagine life without you anymore…"

Ruby chuckled sheepishly. "Y-Yeah… and you're still kinda… well…"

"A snobbish, privileged brat who thinks she's better than everyone else?" Weiss asked with a small smirk.

"…I was just gonna say snobbish…"

"Just shut up and kiss me."

Ruby did just that.

* * *

"Frankly, sir, we don't know enough about this tech to really control it." Sonja told Ron. "Really, it's random chance."

"I'm sensing a but here."

"But, I _do_ think I have studied 'that' technology enough to, at least, be able to communicate back to our universe."

"I want you to make DAMN sure you don't fuck this up. The last thing I want is for you to blow a hole in the multiverse. While I welcome _any_ chance to beat the fuck out of Q, I'd rather he NOT appear. And get that new girl on it. Mari something or other."

"Copy that." Sonja paused. "With your permission, I'd like to do it down on the planet. _Just_ incase something goes wrong, I don't want to blow up the ship and have you haunt my ass in the afterlife."

"Go ahead. Oh, and get Jaden to help you out. He should get a look at Iconian tech sometime, and now is as good a time as any."

The engineer just faintly blushed, before nodding and leaving the room without a word.

"I LOVE being right."

Ron was then bowled over by a black-haired blur. "Hi, Ronnie!"

"Oh, fucking hell, Cassie, don't do that!"

"I like surprising you. Now, you owe me something." She pulled him out of the room, giggling at future activities.

* * *

 **117Jorn: And there we have it! A new chapter and White Rose is in full effect!**

 **Ron the True Fan: No more ducks. (Quack!) Oh god no. (Flees from AMX 40 flock)**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Goddamn it Ron. You and your tanks…**

 **117Jorn: Hang in there Ron! I'M BRINGING THE TIGERS! (Battalion of Tiger I Tanks roll after the AMXs)**

 **RA: (Rains phaser fire) I am done with this! Everything DIES!**

 **Takeshi Yamato: (Facepalms) Oy. Well, as Jorn said, White Rose is in full effect, and I'd imagine that Bumblebee isn't far behind. Next chapter, Ozpin gets informed of the situation, and we properly meet Larcei for the first time this go-around.**

 **117Jorn; SO until next time…**

 **Ja Ne!**


	15. Chapter 15

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

 **2410, Federation Standard Calendar**

* * *

"A what?" Jaden frowned.

"It's called an Iconian gateway." Sonja explained. "We took the designs from the assholes during the war. You know our transporters, right?"

"As much as I don't want to."

"Think of them like supercharged versions: walk through one, you end up anywhere."

"…the things your universe creates just continues to make me _love_ the decision of joining you people." Jaden said with a grin.

"Well, we're hoping it can be used to punch through subspace so we can contact our universe. Tell them we're still alive, send Admiral Asshole Jellico hate mail, tell Ron's mom that she doesn't have to kill all of Starfleet Command. You know."

Jaden nodded, before he blinked "Wait, what was that about Ron's mom?" He asked.

Sonja chuckled. "Scary bitch. Ayame Virgilla Wilhelmina Pinkerton, CO of the _Damascus_. Tore through the Breen like a dog through a steak at Chin'toka and is generally the second most terrifying person in Starfleet that isn't a member of this crew."

"…so there's someone back in you universe… who's _just_ as insane as Ron, if not more so?" Jaden asked for clarification.

"Pretty much."

"…This day just keeps getting better and fucking better!" He grinned.

* * *

 **Beacon**

* * *

"I vill tell you nosing! NO-SING!"

"…That is the most ridiculously poor Atlesian accent I've EVER heard."

Ron grinned. "It's what I do. I have no clue where Blake is, nor the rest of her team."

"Don't. _Lie_ to us." Jaune growled, showing a considerable amount of backbone as he stared up at Ron. "You and Professors Takeo and Yamato vanish the same time RWBY goes missing, and then _you_ come back? Where. Are. They?"

"Again, I have no fucking clue. Ask them when they get back. For now, though, Mr. Arc, remember whom you're fucking with. I trashed Team RWBY. A tourney fighter, a strategist, a hammer-wielding psychopath and Ren are no match against me."

"Mr. Pinkerton," Both JNPR and Ron turned to see Ozpin and Glynda approach them, "A word if you will, please?"

"If this is about Blake and Team RWBY, no I do not know where they are. No I do not know where my fellows are. Now, if you have something more important to talk about, I need to go pickle some Grimm heads. They last longer that way."

"Professor Pinkerton, you are many things… but a good liar, you are not," Ozpin stated. "Mr. Takeo went to find Blake to provide to her her weapon after the… _incident_ in the arena, but he never left RWBY's room, and when the rest of the team arrived, they were gone. Cameras across the school have not shown anyone leaving the room after Mr. Takeo entered. And once more, eye-witness accounts show Mr. Yamato being chased by Ruby, Yang and Weiss before _also_ vanishing. You want us all to believe this is just coincidence?"

"Sadly? Yes. I have zero link to anything beyond the incident in question. Unless you've noticed, I spent all day in my office, grading papers. On that note, you will find that everyone SUCKS."

"I know a deflection when I see one, Mr. Pinkerton."

"With those glasses, I wonder how you can see at all. Now, if you excuse me, I have a job to do." He raised his arm to catch Magnhild before the hammerhead impacted his head. Nora clearly didn't get the idea that he was better than they were.

"And now for a demo." He grabbed the rest of the hammer before throwing it and Nora down the hall at Mach 1.4. "Anything further, Headmaster?"

"You… are not going _anywhere_ , Ronald." Ozpin stated, his cane hitting the ground with a short flare of green energy, as Glynda's grip on her wand tightened. "Until you tell the truth."

"You'll have to catch me first!" With that, he literally backflipped over Team JNPR and ran, activating his motion accelerator.

As Ron ran faster than Ruby with that thing on, they weren't catching him unless they knew he was going to do that.

BANG!

"Ah, Mr Pinkerton! I figured we would have a talk. I know—"

"Fuck you, Oobleck, I have no time for this."

Ron fled (who wouldn't?) from the teacher, but he simply ran into a wall.

Or rather, broke it: he weighed three times more than Ruby. It was like comparing a bullet to a tank round.

At that point, things started flying at him from behind. More specifically, Pyrrha was using her Semblance to magnetically levitate massive blocks of metal, and having Nora hit them with her hammer at full force, sending them at him at a speed about twice that of the sound barrier, if not faster.

That would kill most people. Most people were not internally armored with shit 20 times harder than diamond. Still, weathering that storm (much to the shock of EVERYONE) kept him from moving, which was enough for Ozpin and Glynda to tackle him into a tree.

* * *

Takeshi watched all of this from the _Ra Cailum's_ bridge, still not comfortable on the new _Firestorm_.

The ship just didn't have that lived-in feel to it. Yet. "Ok, enough of this. Corpsa, beam him up."

"On it," Corpsa replied. "Should I get the rest of them, too?"

Takeshi pondered. "Might as well," he said. "I wouldn't feel right not explaining to them why Blake can't go back, and why Ruby, Weiss, and Yang are going with her."

"Got it," Corpsa replied.

The three materialized on the rear bridge pad, two of them confused.

"TAKE!"

The other REALLY pissed off.

"I was impatient, Ron."

"You tell your wife that whenever you sleep with her?" Takeshi glared at Ron, who untangled himself from the two before throwing up a forcefield and walking through it. "That should keep you two from doing anything unbecoming."

"What… where are we?" Glynda asked, decidedly surprised, confused, and possibly somewhat shaken due to the abrupt change of venue.

"About 50,000 kilometers above where you were just a few seconds ago," Takeshi replied deadpan. "Headmaster Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch… welcome aboard the United Federation of Planets starship _Ra Cailum_."

Ozpin stood, then walked right into the forcefield. "Trust me, don't do that. I'm the only one that can walk through force fields like they aren't there. Well, me and Blake, thanks to the _collective_ fuckup." Ron paused, then smacked his forehead. "…Goddamn it, less than a week, and that bitch has me making puns."

"The short story is this," Takeshi interrupted. "Blake was infected by what's in Ron's blood. While she's safe now, Blake can't exactly go back to Remnant without Starfleet supervision anymore, lest we want to put your whole planet at risk."

"Define 'risk'."

"I have just the thing. I'll be back." Ron ran into his ready room.

Luna knew EXACTLY what he was doing. "He's grabbing one of the 'sploders."

"Oh, god, not again."

Ron ran out, holding…

Ozpin wasn't quite sure WHAT it was. Other than that it was a small little ball of… _fur_.

Ron petted it, set it down, and then walked really fast to get away.

"What is-" Ozpin's question was cut off as the thing detonated with a rather loud **_BANG!_**

"What the fuck."

"Tribble grenades! I created their genome myself. I figured 'if my crew are going to keep the fucking things, I'll weaponize them!'. That was a demo for something else, though. Any irregularities, they explode. Mind getting me another one? And a knife?"

Glynda had just about lost it. "And this explains Miss Belladonna's situation HOW?"

Luna arrived with a knife and another tribble before Ron cut his hand open, feeding the tribble his blood. "Three… two…" The tribble began to thrash before the nanoprobes began to assimilate it, implants forming and punching through the skin, showing through the fur.

Ron then took the assimilated tribble to a nearby hatch, which opened up into space, the forcefield keeping the air in, before he chucked it out the hatch.

"That's what happened to Blake. Only her aura slowed it down." The tribble suddenly exploded in the black. "I love exploding tribbles. Good thing I have a neverending stockpile!"

"You're INSANE."

"So they say!" He began hopping around, whooping like an idiot. Takeshi and Luna facepalmed, groaning.

"Anyway," Takeshi said, picking up the explanation, "Blake's like Ron, now, in that she has implants and nanomachines in her body. Those things originated from a hive-mind collective of cybernetic zombies known as the Borg. Their primary objective is to assimilate anything and everything into that collective. Ron was assimilated once, but we freed him. However, almost 70% of his body, including half of his brain, was replaced with cybernetics. He can control the nanoprobes to a degree, but he needs to reprogram them before he uses them. If they come free with blood, he doesn't have that chance, and they default to their original programming of assimilation. Blake's in that same boat, now - if she were to return to Remnant, and somehow bled, the nanoprobes would go free and Remnant would be doomed."

"…That explains the invulnerability."

"Personal shielding equal to a light cruiser. I can tank a photon torpedo to the face."

"Photon what?"

"Anti-ship weapon." Luna supplied helpfully

"It was FUN!"

* * *

"He took a torpedo to the face?" Yang asked.

"It was on the surface of a planet before the Iconian War." Blake explained. "He went down there to disarm it. Instead, his hand slipped and activated the arming mechanism. It exploded with enough force to destroy Menagerie five times over. And I mean the entire island, not just the surface."

Yang whistled. "That's a big boom."

Ruby was giggling maniacally. "Oooooo, I _need_ that in my life."

"There's about 600 of the damn things in the armories. As well as quantum torpedoes, tricobalt warheads and phased plasma torpedoes."

"Phased plasma torpedoes?"

"You don't want to touch those things. They used to damage the torpedo tubes when they were fired. They fixed that now."

Ruby giggled even more. "Can I make one for Crescent Rose?"

"No Ruby, just no."

Ruby visibly deflated.

"The warheads wouldn't fit. And the torpedoes are as long as Pinkerton is tall. I can't see you lugging one of them around. Besides, minimum yield, they would destroy a small building."

"Don't give her ideas." Weiss advised.

"But what if I make SMALL ones?!" Ruby exclaimed, jumping to her feet. She started pacing. "I could put the antimatter in a little guided bullet like the ones Jaden made, or I could put plasma _inside_ the bullet and do that phase-y thingy… Ooooo, I need something to write on."

She darted away in a flurry of rose petals.

"You unleashed a monster."

"Only Ron and Sonja can help her and Sonja has things to do while Ron is busy grading our papers and doing his own paperwork. As well as Takeshi and Lunamaria's. They like making him do their work."

"…Why?"

"They prefer the pleasures of the flesh or the efforts of training with their strengths to agonizing over paperwork."

* * *

She was young, brown haired and wore a smaller version of the old uniforms Ron and the crew wore.

She did not belong here, Jaden knew.

"…you're… Larcei, right?" He spoke, looking at the young girl standing in front of him, while Sonja and Nena were helping get the gear for the gateway established. "Takeshi's kid?"

"Yup!"

"Shouldn't you… you know… _not_ be here, on the planet?"

"It's boring being cooped up on the ship!" she pouted. "I wanted to go see what this place was like, and I knew that as long as I stayed near people Tou-san and Uncle Ron trusted, I would be safe!"

Child logic at its' finest. "Ok… Just… don't touch anything."

"Ok! Don't tell Uncle Ron I'm here: he'll get mad."

"I've seen him mad. Me no want."

* * *

Ozpin entered Ron's ready room, finding the man grading papers, typing on PADDs and doing five things at once. All while Ron's cuttlefish stared at the grey-haired headmaster before changing colors.

"That… is odd."

"Something I can do for you, Headmaster?"

Ozpin sighed as he looked at the Captain. "Mr. Pinkerton… I have a favor to ask of you."

"Depends, what's the favor?"

"What you do best: pissing people off."

"That depends on who you want me to piss off and what I can do to accomplish that. I need context to make people mad."

"Tell me, Captain… how much of Remnant's history have you read up on?" Ozpin asked.

"A lot," Ron shrugged. "Various cultures, peoples, all that. All the different gods and goddesses, demons and devils… why?"

Ozpin sat down in the chair across from him. "Well, out of all of those deities created by man… there are two that I know to truly exist," he said. "Two brothers… a God of Light, and a God of Darkness… I will skim over the details, but the short version is this: the God of Darkness created Grimm, however both Gods together - as their final creation - made mankind, using the four relics: knowledge, creation, destruction and choice."

Ron slowly put down his padd, diverting all of his attention to the Headmaster. "…go on," He nodded.

"These relics are not metaphysical, they are actual objects hidden away within each of the four towers, built within each of the four huntsman academies of Remnant." Ozpin explained. "And a faction… lead by a woman named Salem, is attempting to acquire them all. It is my job - me and my people - to protect these artifacts from Salem and her followers."

"Okay… so what do you want me to do?" Ron asked. "Take them with me?"

"I do not know what would happen if you took the four relics which created humanity to other universes," Ozpin stated, "However… I would appreciate it if you would help us… _relocate_ them."

"To where?" Ron asked. Ozpin walked over towards the window, showing Remnant down below.

"To the one place I know she could never reach, not in a thousand years," he stated, as Remnant's shattered moon came into view.

"Luna."

"Hmm?"

"It's latin. It means moon. It's the name of my world's only moon. I can send teams to recover them and piss off whoever's hunting them." Ron then grinned. "THEN I can do what I do best."

"Like what?"

"I believe the term is called… being a fucking troll."

* * *

It was a simple piece of paper.

But Glynda was not happy to see it. "You are a rude and crude bastard, Captain."

"Pissing people off is an art form. Like dressing like a dominatrix. I learned a LONG time ago that angry people make stupid mistakes. This is a way to piss them off."

Glynda had to admit, she was right.

All of the artifacts had been collected and moved with the utmost care, placed in a quickly built, maximum security building in the interior of the moon.

It had all the bells and whistles. No atmosphere, forcefields, turrets out the ass, disruptor gates, everything.

No one would be getting in _or_ out without an army.

Or breather gear. Or a ship.

Or digging equipment, seeing as he buried it a kilometer and a half under the rock, after which the rock was phased into liquid so it would resolidify over the facility.

"Now for part two of my diabolical piss-people-off plan."

"…I thought we were on step infinity."

"HA!"

* * *

Salem was not amused.

Relaxed security? Relaxed patrols?

Someone was FUCKING with her.

She did _not_ like being fucked with.

She decided to check out Beacon first. If anyone would do something, it was Ozpin.

Cinder was there. She would get her answers.

* * *

Mitod was a simple woman. Liked to get her job done, shoot people in the face and at least TRY to get into Matt's bed.

Ron had been helping with that.

NOW, however, she had a fucking _tornado_ in main engineering.

"Get that bitch out of here NOW!"

"Nothatsnotit." The blur that was Ruby Rose said. "Needsometritaniummagneticfieldspecs—"

Mark walked into engineering, having heard the commotion. "I've heard stories about the Red Reaper, but this puts them all to shame."

When Ruby darted close by him, he grabbed her by her hood, bringing the girl running at Mach 1.5 to a complete stop without so much as moving.

" 'Ey!" Ruby flailed her legs, as her arms were occupied. "Letmego!"

"Nope!" Mark dragged her along, straight out of the room. "You need to work somewhere else!"

"But my babies!" Ruby whined. "I must have them!"

"You can have babies with your girlfriend later." Mark assured.

Ruby froze, and the man could practically _hear_ her blush. "W-w-what did you say?"

"Oh, I knew you two were an item from the moment I saw you this morning." Mark said smugly, pulling her back to her quarters. "You know, Federation tech _is_ advanced enough for two women to have a child."

Ruby's blush was redder than the _Ra Calium's_ Bussard collectors. "W-what?"

"You heard me."

"Well… I haven't really thought that far ahead… we've only been girlfriends for a day…"

"It's something to consider." Mark finally put her on her feet and shot her a wink. "I'm happy for you two. Now, if I hear you making a mess in the ship's critical areas again, I _am_ gonna put you under." He tossed up a canister of anesthitzine gas. "And this stuff will put you under before you can blink."

The young rose nodded rapidly. "Roger that."

The hunter smirked. "Good. Now go make out with your girl or something."

An orange beam shot past their heads. "GET THE FUCK OUT OF ENGINEERING! BOTH OF YOU!"

"Eep!" Ruby ran off, Mitod screaming at her before looking at Mark. "You! Out!"

"What did I do?"

"For one, you're still here and the captain hasn't authorized you to BE here! Unauthorized personnel are supposed to stay AWAY from the big thing that can create a miniature star!"

"Uhhhhh… Smokescreen!" Mark tossed smoke from a wrist launcher in her face, causing Mitod to cough and wave away the distraction. By the time she could see again, the man was _long_ gone.

"MotherFUCKER!"

* * *

Nena grinned madly as she looked at her handiwork. It was perfect, and flawless - if she was gonna stop Sonja from taking away Jaden, the best way to start was by utterly humiliating her. While she and Jaden were working on the Gateway, she had set up an intricate set of traps for her, which included acid guns which could burn off clothes (but didn't damage organic skin - she didn't want to _kill_ her), plus deployed several traps which would trap her down as well. She'd be _humiliated_ , and thus stay the heck away from Jaden!

She giggled madly, as she left to finish the preparations… unknown to the fact that Sonja was _also_ seeking to get rid of Nena, and set up her own series of traps. Only Sonja's were a tad more… _violent_ , involving trying to tip over some crates, crash them on top Nena, knock her out, call for a medical beam-out for her so it would just be her and Jaden… and Larcei of course.

To the sides, both pretended to play nice, but both eagerly awaited the other to fall into the other's trap.

"Okay, so… I suppose we need some of these…?" Jaden muttered, as Sonja blinked as she looked at Jaden as he walked up to several crates full of isolinear chips… the same one she rigged up to fall on. ' _Oh shit, OH SHIT!_ ' She thought as she ran up towards the unaware man as he triggered the trap, as the wires were cut allowing the crates to fall.

Nena saw this too, as her eyes widened as she ran to push Jaden out of the way… only for him to completely ignore the trap, walking right past it while looking at his PADD, and then running smack-dab into Sonja who was attempting to do the same thing - the Crates crashed down, and shoved both girls… right into _Nena's_ trap.

* _SNAP_ *

* _HISS_ *

"G-Gah!"

"W-What the hell?!"

* _HISS_ *

Jaden blinked "The fuck was that?" He asked, turning around, "Girls, what was-" he began to say, before his jaw dropped at the sight before him… that being Nena and Sonja both tied up together, positioned rather… _erotically_ , as some sort of green liquid was burning off their clothes all the way up to _there…_ "U-Uhhh…"

Sonja snarled. "For fuck's sake, don't just stand there!"

"Uh…"

"Goddamn it, I don't give a fuck if you see me naked! Just get us out of this thing so I find a way to KILL HER!"

Jaden still couldn't move, staring at them until…

 _Thump_

He fainted.

"…well shit." Nena muttered.

A shower of light signalled the arrival of the one person neither of them wanted to see: their commanding officer. "Okay so how's… the… " He began to say, before spotting the unconscious Jaden… before spotting Nena and Sonja.

Who, upon seeing what befell them, groaned. "You know, it was funny before, now it's just getting stupid. Settle your bullshit before I settle it for you."

"He's mine! I'm not—"

"For fuck's sake, you STUPID halfbreed, Federation law allows for polygamy!"

Nena blinked at both the insult (Ron never used racist terms, meaning he was REALLY pissed) and that little revelation. "Buh?"

"There are dozens of races that practice it and some species interbreed. So, for the sake of preventing insanity, the Council, in 2214, decided 'you want to marry more than one person? Have fun!'." He pulled out a knife, carefully using the monomolecular blade to cut them free of their bonds. "Settle this before I exercise my right to use any means necessary to keep you two from blowing up my ship. If that means forcing all three of you in wedded bliss, I'll fucking do it!"

Nena looked at Sonja, who looked only mildly annoyed that her captain had to save her. "He's telling the truth on all counts." She admitted, sighing.

"…do you really love him?" Sonja blinked, looking at Nena, who had a bit of a downcast look on her face. "Just… be straight, do you?"

Sonja was silent for a moment, before sighing. "I… fuck, I think I am… " she muttered, "First I just thought it was just being… happy to have someone around who can keep up with me in engineering that wasn't the Cap… now? I just…"

"He… has that effect," Nena chuckled a bit, "He grows on people fast… when I first met him I didn't much care for him, but… he saved me in more ways than one… not just my life, but… who I am too… if it wasn't for him, I'd probably still be some spoiled brat…"

Sonja nodded. "Yeah… Look, I'm… sorry, about all of this," she admitted. "I don't want to hate you over something like this… "

"Me too…" Nena nodded. "I… sorta started this whole mess anyways… I just… don't want to lose him, but… if you're fine, and he's fine with umm… " she blushed slightly. "…you know… _sharing_ … maybe it could work out?"

"Sure." Water splashed on both of them before Sonja had a jacket thrown on her and Nena had a red longsleeved undershirt thrown at her. They both looked at Ron, finding that he was no longer wearing his uniform jacket or the red division undershirt, but his tanktop with the communicator attached to it. "Cover your freaking shame. I'll get you new uniforms. Just don't pull this again." Ron then rolled his eyes, tapping his combadge before beaming out.

"…your captain's still an asshole though,"

"You get used to it… " Sonja muttered with a small smirk as she slid the jacket on. "Well… let's hope the clothes gets here before Jaden wakes up… otherwise we won't get _any_ work done."

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: That was amusing.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Filler means romance! And explaining how much _better_ the Federation is than any other government in the multiverse.**

 **117Jorn: If only that could happen in real life…**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Imagine the harem scenarios that could emerge!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Here we go…**

 **Ja Ne!**

 **117Jorn: One final note though… on the day we created this chapter, it is February 1st, 2017… it has been two years since we, and all sci-fi nerds, geeks and fantasy-lovers all lost a dear friend and icon to us all. We miss you, Monty Oum - we'll never forget all the things you gave this community, and we will always treasure RWBY and all of your creations. May you rest in peace.**


	16. Chapter 16

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

 **2410, Federation Standard Calendar**

* * *

They purred in the darkness, sealed behind glass to keep anyone from getting anywhere near them.

That wasn't stopping Ruby from getting her hands on Ron's prized exploding tribbles.

"Ruby… what the hell are you doing?"

"They explode! I want one!"

Weiss shook her head, sighing. While exploding anything was interesting, the tribbles were like Zwei.

Except more numerous.

And they were _everywhere._

"Ohmyghosh they're sooooo cute!" Ruby gushed, face all scrunched up chibi style. "They'd make the perfect landmines!" Ruby suddenly adopted an evil face. "You just leave them somewhere, someone walks across them, picks them up, allured by the cuteness, and when they start petting… BLAM!" She yelled, causing Weiss to jump. "They dead!"

"It takes a real sadist to make these things explode."

"Did someone say my name?" Ron stood at the entrance to a jefferies tube, someway, somehow, wearing a troll face. "About time, ladies. I was wondering when you'd get over yourselves and admit you liked each other."

"How'd you know?!"

"I had two degrees in psychology. Pre-assimilation. Now I'm a master of reading people. And genetic engineering. I made these exploding furballs."

"Why?!" Weiss shouted. "Why make these little creatures explode! It… it's so _evil_!"

"I suggest you talk to the Klingons and the personnel of Deep space K-7. These adorable little fuckers literally shut the place down after eating the grain stores. Besides, it's a never-ending supply of explosives. Feed them more than a crumb, they produce MORE tribbles. There's about 2.5 million of the fucking things in there."

"Two and a half million EXPLODING furballs?!"

"I bet you want to use them on someone."

Weiss opened her mouth to reply, but then realization struck her over the head like a Gorn ready to hit a homerun.

"Oooooo."

"I'll let you have access to the tribbles. Use them. Abuse them. DESTROY! DESTROY!"

Weiss facepalmed before Ron climbed out. She reached into the massive bin and pulled out a tribble.

* * *

On the ground, Jaden was barely awake when he got an eyeful of a barely-clothed Sonja.

' _HOLY SHIT, I THOUGHT HER BREASTS WERE SMALLER_!'

He's a guy, sue him.

She sighed before grabbing a long cloth and wrapping it around her actually rather sizable bust. "Oh, you're awake."

"G-Gai, u-uhhh," Jaden sputtered "S-Sorry I-I didn't mean - I mean I l-looked and uhh… guhhh… "

"Unlike most people, I don't care if you see me naked, Jaden," Sonja said with a short chuckle. "I used to run around my home naked until I was ten. Though you and the captain share one thing."

"That being?"

"Sputtering when you accidentally look at a woman naked. Nena and I need to talk to you, by the way."

Jaden blinked, before looking at Nena, who wore some longsleeved shirt which kept her decent… _ish_ as she fidgeted slightly, blushing a bit. "…uh, what's this about?" He asked.

"Well… what do you think of… us?" Sonja asked, gesturing to herself and Nena.

Jaden blinked, glancing between the two. "Well… you're excellent engineers, Sonja being the… well, awesome one—"

"Not professionally." Sonja groaned, rolling her eyes as Nena giggled slightly. " _Romantically._ "

Jaden did a bit of a double-take at the sudden question, his face turning a bit red. "Oh, not—" He began to say, but Sonja grabbed his shirt before pressing her lips to his, making him gasp, if muffled, in surprise.

"We're in love with you, you fucking idiot." She stated, after breaking the kiss, her face looking considerably more red now. "Now do us all a favor and give us an honest answer!"

"I… huh?" He asked, glancing at Nena.

"Yeah… me and Sonja, well… kinda sat down, and talked while you were… out." Nena informed, "We… didn't want to keep fighting over you, so… thanks to the Federation's laws… it's not really _illegal_ to have more than one spouse so…" She sighed. "I love you Jaden… if it wasn't for you, I don't know _where_ I'd be now… and Sonja feels the same, so… if you want too… I… _we_ want to be… well… your girlfriends."

Jaden just looked at the two in shock at the sudden revelation, as well as mentally bashing his brain for not noticing the signs sooner when Nena and Sonja first started fighting one another. "I… I mean…" He began to say, but he decided to take a deep, relaxing breath, before looking at them again. "Okay… truth be told, I… kinda had… well, crushes on both of you…"

Both girls blinked. "Wait… seriously?" Sonja asked.

"Yeah… I mean… Sonja, you're probably one of the smartest women I've ever met, and you've shown me all this stuff with Starfleet and your universe… and Nena, your one of the best MS pilots I've ever known, too… and you're both two of the most beautiful women I've ever met… I just… well, never said anything since… well, not only was there never _time_ , but I didn't want to risk ruining what we already had… " he then chuckled dryly. "But… then again… risk is our lives, isn't it?"

Sonja let out a short chuckle, "Our business."

"Huh?"

"The unofficial motto of Starfleet." She answered, shaking her head. "The only thing keeping you from earning a commission is the fact that you have to go through a course."

"What's so bad about that?"

"You need an Academy teacher. And how many Academy teachers do we have?"

Jaden thought about it before realizing it: RON was the Academy teacher.

If anyone was going to be making them go through the courses, it would be the crazy bastard.

And he saw Takeshi and Luna: they didn't like his coursework.

"Well… " Jaden sighed, "If Takeshi and Luna could _survive_ him… if barely… me and the others are gonna have to do it too."

"We can handle _that_ later…" Sonja said, smiling as he helped Jordan back to his feet. "Gateway first, talk to Ron second and third… well… " She pulled him closer, and gave him another kiss - surprising Jaden again, only this time he gladly returned the gesture. "…we'll work on it from there."

"Yeah… " Jaden gulped a bit, but smiled. "I guess we will."

Sonja chuckled slightly, moving back towards the Gateway with renewed vigor. Before Jaden could even take a step to follow, Nena leaped on top of him and smashed her lips onto his as well. "She got her turn! Mine now," she whispered with a giggle. "That's how _sharing_ works!"

* * *

"Ron… Where's Larcei?"

Ron leaned back in his chair, looking bored. "Haven't seen her. Why?"

"She's not on board. I've checked everywhere."

Ron activated the comms, having an idea. "Sonja, if you're not busy pulling a Takeshi, mind seeing if Larcei is on the ground?"

" _Oh she's down here,_ " Sonja replied. " _Smuggled down with the supplies… and fuck you Captain!_ "

"Well, it's about time you and Jaden got together. Enjoy yourselves. And tell Nena to have fun."

" _Well, uh—_ "

"I know you're going to share him."

 _"Fucking troll."_

"Trololololololololol~ Just remember, if that little girl gets hurt, _songs_ will be sung of the pain I will inflect upon you. Am I clear?"

" _We've GOT this, Nena's keeping an eye on her right now while me and Jaden finish the prep work,_ " Sonja said. " _Feel free to send down extra help if ya want._ "

"I know. I just like threatening people to keep an eye on Larcei. At least it's not like dealing with my other sister-in-law.."

Jaden and Nena was confused. " _Uh… OTHER sister-in-law_?"

"You'll find out later. I'm sending down Thyler. He knows Remnant the best, so he should be good for extra protection. Pinkerton out." Ron deactivated the comm. "There. She's on the ground."

"Oh, great, _how did she get down there?_ " Takeshi asked. "I mean, I heard what Sonja said, but still… how did she manage to sneak onto the transporter with all the supplies beaming down?!"

"She spent time with Sonja."

"Fucking BITCH!"

* * *

Mark shivered as he materialized on the ground. "That's gonna take some getting used to."

The compound was fairly basic. It was protected by five meter-tall walls, which were armed with automated phaser turrets and cannons.

The rest of the compound was made of prefabricated buildings, centered around some sort of arch; a Gateway he was told, basically a transporter on steroids.

He spotted Jaden and Sonja busying themselves with working on the Gateway, working at consoles, dragging wires, and moving armatures into place.

"Hehehe!"

"Come back here!"

Mark noticed a small, three year old redhead, giggling her ass off, being chased by a taller, older redhead.

' _That must be Yamato's daughter.'_

Mark sauntered his way over towards them. "Miss Trinity!"

"Hmm?" Nena stopped chasing the little copy of Luna. "Oh, thank god." She breathed out a sigh of relief. "Could you watch her? She's chasing me around like a mule."

He nodded. "No problem. Oh, and take this." He tossed her a package. "Something better than the jacket you're wearing."

Nena blushed and stuttered out a quick thank you before darting off.

Mark felt someone poking his leg and looked down to find Larcei there. ' _How did she sneak up on me?'_

The crouched down to her level. "Why hello there. What's your name?"

"Larcei!" the girl chirped. "Normally I don't get to go on the ship with Tou-san and Uncle Ron, but I managed to get on before we left - and this has been some trip!"

"Yeah it is." Mark muttered, before an idea came to mind. "You wanna see something cool?"

"Sure?"

The hunter pulled out a smokescreen canister and popped it. Using his Semblance, Mark pulled out all of the smoke in an instant, making it dance around his arms like a snake. It wrapped up into his hand and shifted again, turning into a small dragon, complete with flapping wings. It opened it's mouth to roar, and red smoke billowed from it's mouth like fire, much to the little girl's amusement.

It reminded him of times long gone.

"Okedoke, I _think_ we're good..." Jaden stated, plugging the final cord into the gateway. "Everything's connected, valve's set… so how do we light this sucker up?"

Sonja cackled before pulling out her tricorder.

"This is how." She pushed a button, energy arcing before the gateway's trademark formed.

"Got it! Now for the fun part. I'll just input our universe's quantum signature and..."

A horrendous roar filled the air, and the group instinctively flinched.

"What the hell was that?!"

Mark turned serious, listening to the sounds. "Grimm. A _lot_ of them. Larcei, stay close."

"Ok."

Sonja scoffed. "Please. There's no way they can get in here. Those turrets will tear them to shreds."

"If there's one thing you need to know about the Grimm, it's to _never_ underestimate them." The hunter pulled out the new and improved Calamity, complete with plasma-disruptors and monomolecular blades. He called over a couple of crates as cover, just in case.

"If shit hits the fan we can just call Ron down here."

"Your captain is not going to hold off an army of Grimm."

"He once held off a metric fuckton of scorpions as big as a tank. He can handle the Grimm."

Mark had not seen Ron fight, thus his doubts were rather understandable.

He should have learned never to doubt Starfleet's most brutal captain.

* * *

The Grimm were doing their job perfectly: distracting the target. Dozens of Beowolves were throwing themselves at the compound, only to be killed or vaporized by the base turrets.

Mortars rained fire, and one direct impact broke a Deathstalker's back in a shower of blood and gore.

But they were distracting the turrets, and that's all they needed.

"Ready to have some fun, Cinder?" Tyrian, the insane Scorpion faunus asked, giggling.

"More than ready."

"Alright then." He fixed his eyes on Nena, licking his lips. "She's mine."

The two snuck in behind the Grimm, using them as meatshields until bullets shot past Tyrian's head.

"I thought this was convenient." Sonja snarled, loading another clip into her tommy gun.

"How'd you know?" Cinder asked, weaving through the projectiles.

"My captain is paranoid. That extends to everyone on the crew. So, who are you? I'm only asking because Ron'll kill you later."

"You don't need to know. Attack!"

Dozens of dark henchmen boiled out from the woods, using the Grimm as shields to get into the compound.

Mark swore as they came over. "Larcei, get down!" He opened fire, and claimed the new Calamity's first kill, taking off one of the henchmen's head.

"Fuck. Henderson to _Ra Cailum_!"

" _Go ahead_."

"We've got assholes, sir! They keep this shit up, we're going to destabilize the gateway!"

" _I'm sending Team RWBY down there. Call if you need me_."

Nena fired her own rifle at the onslaught of Grimm, before her senses demanded her to duck - which she followed as a scorpion-like tail thrusted right where she was moments ago. "SON OF A BITCH!" She shouted, rolling away from a second strike.

"Ooohohoho! Quick one!" The Scorpion Faunus cackled madly.

Nena growled as she stayed alert. "The hell are you?" She demanded.

"Oh, you may call me Tyrian," The Faunus informed, "Apologies, but I will have to kill you now - orders by the queen~"

"Fuck your Queen!" Tyrian jumped out of the way as Jaden swung what looked like a Shotgun with an Axe attached at the end - before bringing it to bear and firing the gun as Tyrian hopped away.

"Cheeky! I like that!"

Showers of light deposited Team RWBY, all armed and ready for battle.

Tyrian's eyes widened at seeing Ruby's silver orbs. "Oh, this is both good and bad. The Queen will want to talk to you personally."

"Forget her!" Cinder yelled, blocking bullets and knives from Sonja and returning with fire. "We have other problems, Tyrian! Who are you, and who is your leader? We wish to… _speak_ with him!"

"Yeah you'll find out soon enough!" Jaden shouted as he continued firing at Tyrian, keeping his distance from the Faunus.

Cinder fired balls of flame at Sonja, but the engineer deployed cover shields and reloaded her Calico before firing at her.

Cinder was confused, and understandably: Sonja's shields were not semblance or any known technology she knew of.

Atlas was powerful, yes, but this was beyond even the highly advanced kingdom. And any flames that touched her did not burn. And there was no flare up of aura.

"Come on, bitch! I've fought animals more dangerous then you are! And Ron's cuttlefish are harmless!"

Cinder snarled, and charged.

By now, some Grimm had managed to make it over the walls, mostly comprising of Alphas and the larger ones, including a few scattered Nevermores. RWBY and Mark moved to keep them out, using their semblances to their fullest. Ruby sliced Ursas apart in the blink of an eye, Weiss pinned Beowolves in place, Blake launched off shadows to kill and dodge, Yang used her gauntlets and rage to, well, 'splode them, and Mark was using his gasses to kill anything that so much as _breathed_ in Larcei's direction.

While the little girl was scared, she did keep her head about her, staying close to her personal guardian and in cover.

A pulsewave hit another Beowolf, fired by a freshly arrived Takeshi. " 'She'll be safe' he says. I will NEVER trust a word he says about our daughter EVER again!"

The scorpion faunus switched targets, attacking and overwhelming Yang in a hope to get Ruby to surrender to him so he could bring her to Salem. Made sense: Ruby and Yang were as family-minded as Ron was.

Sadly, while it was a good idea in theory… in practice, it was a stupid idea.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

A woman scorned had NOTHING on a VERY pissed off lady in a mask - as a rift appeared in thin air, and a woman wearing black and red armor appeared, and batted Tyrian away, with her sudden arrival causing a temporary pause in battle. Tyrian blinked as he looked at the woman… before his eyes narrowed.

" _You,_ " He hissed out, his tail coiling back.

She drew her sword, casting a glance at Yang before engaging the Faunus.

* * *

Cinder was up against the normal people: Jaden, Nena, and Sonja had nothing special, unless you counted Sonja's seemingly _unending_ number of knives.

An elder Deathstalker rushed through the line, hissing before a blade was shoved through its' stinger and impaled it through the head.

Jaden knew that sword.

He knew it _all_ too well.

"Oi, bitchtits." Cinder looked into the sky, seeing a man in the same uniform Sonja was wearing hovering there with a jetpack and boots, holding some kind of twin-pronged rifle.

"Usually, I'd be just a bit annoyed. But you made it personal. You attacked this place while my NIECE was down here. Guess what, _slut_?" He performed an HK slap on his G36E as his right iris shifted to red.

"Now you fucking _die_."

Then everything went to shit.

The Gateway, which had moments ago, been working fine, suddenly fluctuated; the normally blue event horizon turning an unstable red.

Mark, Larcei, and the woman in the mask were the closest to the portal. Mark suddenly found his legs swept out from under him, and he barely managed to grab a safety handrail.

He heard a very familiar scream. Heart in his throat, his other hand snapped out and grabbed Larcei's forearm.

"Don't let go!" He screamed over the sudden wind.

Larcei's grip began to weaken. "LARCEI!" Her parents tried to get to her, but they had a hard time keeping themselves in place without getting sucked in.

Tyrian used his tail to hook into a railing, screaming, while Cinder dug in her feet. Team RWBY clung to the rocks, trying to get to her.

Mark desperately tried to use his semblance to push her back, but the gravity well was simply too strong. "HOLD ON!"

"I can't!" The girl yelled.

A crate flew over the railing and slammed into Mark, making him grunt in pain and loosen his grip. It also served to josile Larcei.

The young, innocent girl fell from Mark's arms even as he screamed out her name.

The masked woman jumped, trying to get to her. Sadly, gravity sucks.

She grabbed Larcei, but she was pulled into the gateway, her mask falling off, exposing her face.

Beyond the hair and the eyes… she looked like Yang.

As the two passed the event horizon, the gateway collapsed.

Silence seemed to reign over the compound as everyone realized what just happened.

Ron, who watched impassively, turned his eyes to Cinder.

For the first time in Cinder's life, she knew real fear that didn't come from Salem. She feared no man.

Ron was no man. He was a god of rage in human skin.

"You." He declared, voice sounding mechanical. "You will die."

Cinder brought all of the power she had of the Fall Maiden, combined with her semblance, and threw it all at Ron.

The massive ball of fire slammed against the man and exploded.

He walked out untouched.

 **(BGM: God of War 3 - Rage of Sparta** )

"What… What the fuck ARE YOU?!"

"Depends on who you ask." Ron tugged on a cord, pulling his sword back to him. "The Klingons call me the Human Kahless. The Romulans call me Hobus Reborn. The Delta Quadrant universally thinks of me as some sort of deity that descended to this plane of existence to punish the foolish and the wicked. Starfleet Command calls me their pain in the ass."

He grabbed her by the throat, crushing her windpipe. "You can just call me Captain Ronald Pinkerton, commanding officer of the United Federation of Planets starship _Ra Cailum_. **Because I will be _the last fucking thing you will ever see_**!"

Ron slammed her into the ground, then kicked her away. "Run little birdy. Run."

Cinder looked up at him, and growled. She may not have had all the powers of the Mantle, but she was still stronger than any other Huntsman or Huntress on this planet!

She charged at him, calling up her flames again, not realizing (or knowing) one simple fact.

Ron was not of this planet.

They continued to impact, doing jack shit. At this point, fear gripped Cinder as she tried to back away. But Ron grabbed her ankle and dragged her back before grabbing her head.

He began to crush it with one hand.

She tried to pry herself free, even firing point-blank flame bursts to try and get him to let go, but nothing worked, as the pressure on her skull grew more intense, and she felt genuine fear for her life.

"You murdered my niece." He placed the other hand on her skull, then increased the pressure, adding it slowly while she thrashed in his hands. He pressed his forehead against hers before glaring into her eyes. "Die."

He crushed her skull and snapped her neck for good measure.

Blood seeped out from between his fingers, as her eyes, now glazing over, popped out of their sockets, still hanging in place by their nerve cords. Soon, a ball of orange… well, energy… rose from her corpse, and seemed to pause in midair, as if looking him over.

It then left, heading back to Beacon.

"Interesting, but irrelevant."

Tyrian began to back away, but a bullet took off his foot, fired from Luna's Soviet-designed anti-material rifle.

The parents were mad.

And then a small sphere landed next to Tyrian, before it exploded.

Takeshi stood there, smoke coming out of his pulsewave's grenade launcher attachment, as he waited to see the carnage that would come about.

"I see you're going for the overkill option as always."

"Maxim—"

"Quote that rule, there will be blood. There is ALWAYS overkill. I knew someone who fired a 50 cal at a fucking squirrel. All that was left was the tail."

Takeshi winced. "OK, point," he said. "Still, it's not like I'm the only one, today - you don't crush skulls all that often."

Tyrian darted back out of the smoke, tail and blades reaching for Take's neck. "You wanna play?!" Tyrian yelled. "Haheha, let's play!"

"I'll let you have him." Ron muttered, pulling his sword and rifle, striding toward the woods.

Takeshi grinned. "Now _this_ I can handle!" His sword suddenly appeared in his hands, parrying a strike and slashing Tyrian across the chest, lowering his already weakened aura.

"I can't wait to see what it would take to kill you! Will you die from my poison or from my—" Takeshi hacked through his weapons, making the Faunus look at the remains in horror before he slashed at his left arm, breaking his aura and cleanly removing it.

"My arm!"

"That won't be the last thing you lose!" An upward cut hacked off the other arm before he knelt and made a horizontal slash at Tyrian's legs, removing them just above the knees.

All the while, to the sidelines Sonja, Jaden, Nena and RWBY just… watched. "Should we… help him?" Blake asked.

"Help who? Takeshi or the Scorpion?" Jaden asked semi-jokingly.

"Actually, he's got a point: Scorpy's getting his ass kicked."

Ron approached the team, using his phaser to clean his hands of Cinder's blood, bone and brain matter. Ruby stared at the weapon.

"What CAN'T those things do?!"

Blake shrugged. "The phaser is the multitool of weapons, Ruby. They can cut, weld and heat. That model was actually used in the assassination of Chancellor Gorkon in 2293. It punched right through his body."

"And as Klingons have thick skin, and we mean that literally, THAT'S saying something."

Meanwhile, at the gate, Mark had fallen to his knees, shock painted against his face. _'It happened again.'_

He had let someone else die again. Another innocent life, slipping right out of his hands to their death.

' _No. Never again.'_

( **BGM: Megalo Strike Back - Metal Cover || RichardEB)**

Mark's eyes flashed with determination, and he stood up.

"NEVER again!"

Suddenly, something inside Mark broke open, and a suddenly clarity came over his mind.

He could _see_ the air molecules.

And he could _change_ them.

In an instant, dozens of men and Grimm dropped to the ground as the very air they were breathing turned toxic, clawing at their throats and chests as their lungs were burned away.

Ruby gagged as she watched. "That's gross."

A huge Ursa Major charged at Mark, claws bared. Before it could strike, however, it burst into flames as the air around it was compressed and turned to plasma.

The last thing it saw before it's eyes were burned away were a pair of glowing blue eyes.

Jaden blinked rapidly. "What just happened?"

Weiss stared in awe. "He achieved mastery."

Bursts of plasma burned Grimm to ashes, henchmen breathed on acid, things _died_ to his rage.

The PSGs on the Starfleet personnel flared from the cloud before Ron unclipped a small generator from his belt, "RWBY, Nena, Jaden, group together, NOW! Whatever that idiot's doing is generating plasma that's as toxic as plasma coolant!"

"What about you and your in-laws?"

"Our PSGs can block it out, you're not wearing any. Get together!"

Mark crushed a Deathstalker with increased air pressure, exploded a Beowolf with it's own air content, and set a group of Creeps on fire with a glance.

The Grimm we all focusing on the swirl of negative emotions, ignorant of the countless losses they suffered.

Mark noticed this, even as the swarm tried to swallow him. Gathering up his power to one fine point, the Grimm descended on him.

With a earth-shaking roar, he let loose a wall of plasma, pushing away all the Grimm, burning them away, with no sign of their existence left behind.

He just stood there, breathing heavily as plasma danced around his body in little sparks.

Finally, the air pressure and temperature lowered, and the glow around the hunter seemed to die down.

Takeshi laid a hand on the young man's shoulder. "You ok?"

Mark jumped, saw Take, and the last five minutes seemed to crash back onto him, as tears welled in his eyes. "Yamato, I am so, so sorry."

Takeshi sighed, shaking his head. "It's fine." He muttered, "My brother-in-law is to blame for this."

"I was expecting nothing but safety." Ron explained, kicking a henchman's charred pelvic plate to the side. "Larcei would go 'I saw something amazing', then take a nap when she got home! SONJA!"

"I-I don't know what happened!" Sonja shouted in defense. "Everything was fine! I got everything down to the letter, then before I knew it the whole thing just destabilized!"

Jaden ran over to where the Gateway control panel was. "She's right - it was running normally… however when that woman showed up, the Gateway showed some sort of… disturbance, maybe related to how she teleported in. When she showed up, it destabilized the Gateway, causing it to do… well… "

"So… Larcei is…" Luna began to whisper.

"No, I don't think she's gone," Jaden said, looking over the data. "The gate was destabilizing sure, but it was still _functioning_ … I think with the… yeah, yeah! We've got something here!"

"Got what?" Takeshi asked.

"I was able to pick up the coordinates to the last location the Gateway was connected too!" Jaden proclaimed, "We can track it, and use the _Ra Cailum's_ wormhole generator to take us to wherever the Gateway shot Larcei and the other woman out to!"

"Get on it. I want her found quickly. Pack up! We're leaving in 72 hours!"

* * *

Jaune Arc was reasonably afraid of Ronald Pinkerton, but he did not fear Takeshi Yamato so readily.

So when Takeshi returned after 'family business', saying that he was going to be leaving soon, he and JNPR jumped at the chance to find out where RWBY was.

And Takeshi wasn't going to do lying or distracting anymore - one, he sucked at it, and two, he was past the point of caring. That didn't mean he was going to tell them right away.

"Are you really sure you want to know what's going on?" Takeshi asked. "And I mean 150% sure? Once you learn this information, you'll either have to be sworn to total secrecy, and never talk about this even in your _sleep_ , or never return to Beacon again."

"We want to know where they are." Jaune reaffirmed

"Yeah, we just want to know they're safe!" Nora said. "You've been all super-secretive and suspicious since you came to Beacon! We want answers! We'll even fight that asshole buddy of yours!"

Takeshi sighed. Might as well - he doubted they'd take anything less than visible confirmation. "Alright," he said, "Just remember, you asked for it." He tapped his commbadge. " _Ra Cailum_ , five to beam up."

The team disappeared in showers of light.

All seen by Velvet Scarletina.

"What the FUCK."

* * *

They reappeared on the transporter bridge pad of the _Ra Cailum_. Pyrrha stared at everything before Ron, in full uniform, approached the pad. "Just so you know, this is on you. Me no like breaking the Prime Directive."

"I don't like it either, Ron," Takeshi replied, "but I didn't think they'd take anything less than direct visual confirmation for an answer." He stepped off the pad, and turned to face team JNPR. "Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie… welcome to the United Federation of Planets Starship _Ra Cailum_."

"St-STARSHIP?!"

"We're in space. Get over it."

"How can you be so… blase about this?! Space is a big thing!" Nora spread her arms out in a futile attempt to describe how vast space was.

"Big for you, Valkyrie. Fact of life for us."

"We're not from around here," Takeshi informed. "We're lost, much farther away from home than normal, and trying to get back. We came here for a bit of a pit stop and decided to discreetly check out the neighborhood. RWBY found us out in… typical fashion for us, and have chosen to come along for the ride when we move on."

Ron facepalmed. "Great, _more_ paperwork that _you_ will make me do. _Thank_ you. I can just imagine the screaming fit Jellico is gonna have when he reads this."

Takeshi shrugged. "Just tell him your mother is in the next room. That should shut him down."

"What?" Jaune asked, oblivious to the backstory.

"Long story."

"Explain the situation. I need to deal with other problems. Like our warp drive."

"What's a warp drive?"

"This ship is designed for extra-solar flight. Take a hint."

Pyrrha understood. "Faster than light."

"Yes," Takeshi replied. "Come on. I'll show you to where Team RWBY's quarters are, and explain the situation along the way."

Ron planted his ass in the center chair, groaning. "Shoot. Me."

* * *

"They just disappeared?"

Velvet nodded. "They were surrounded by showers of light, then… poof! They were gone!"

Coco frowned. "Hmm… that seems strange…" she remarked. "Not that I don't believe you, Velvet. There seems to be more to our new teachers than we thought."

"We need to tell Headmaster Ozpin. He said that Professor Pinkerton got away from him in that bush. If they can do this, they might be a bigger threat to the school."

Fox nodded. Not that they expected much else from him, given that he didn't really talk that much, if at all.

They then rushed to the tower where Ozpin kept his office, hoping that he could help.

The moment the elevator arrived, they were greeted with the coffee-drinking bastard drinking a new kind of coffee.

"Ah, Team CFVY," Ozpin said, as he sipped at the coffee. "What brings you to my office today? And without an appointment, no less."

"Headmaster, Professor Pinkerton is missing, and Team JNPR just vanished with Professor Yamato."

"Oh?" The man raised an eyebrow, smiling behind the cup.

"Velvet, tell him."

The faunus fidgeted. "Well, they were all surrounded by some kind of… showers of light. Then they just disappeared. And I know he was talking to someone, not using a scroll!"

"I see," Ozpin replied. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. That will be all."

"Sir—"

"I will handle this matter personally. Now, I suggest you deal with another problem."

Coco raised an eyebrow before they felt the presence of death.

Cloaked in trollism.

"Hiiiiiiiiii."

The four turned to find Ron standing behind them, having beamed into the elevator while the doors were closed.

Coco sweatdropped.

This was not going to be fun.

* * *

While CFVY got Popoed by Ron, Salem got mad.

VERY mad.

Cinder was dead. Tyrian was dead.

And the Fall Maiden's powers were back with Amber!

The Grimm queen was not prone to temper tantrums. But this was an exception.

Enough was enough. If you wanted something done right, do it yourself.

She went to the hiding place for the artifact under Beacon. The reduced security meant it would be easier to find answers, even if it was a trap.

What she found was a note.

' _Surprise, fuck for brains! Sorry to disappoint, but the item you're looking for is in another castle! Better luck next time, bitch! Yours truly, Ronald Pinkerton, King of the Trolls!_ '

This was followed by large amounts of obscene figures that cannot be reproduced in literary form for fear of banning.

Seriously, it's THAT bad. The only not-so-bad thing was the troll face.

But still. The artifacts were gone, Amber was gone, and everything was going to shit.

Salem was having none of this, and she needed to vent.

What better place to vent than the home of animals?

* * *

"You… are a bastard." Coco declared.

"Allah who-snack bar."

"Huh?"

"Mocking a religion that went SERIOUSLY went screwy a few centuries back. Now, I hate to tell you this, but your friends are fine. Fucking deal with it. You'll see them in a day or so."

"What about that light show?" Velvet questioned. "JNPR and Professor Yamato were surrounded by columns of light, and then poof! Gone!"

"Again, fucking deal—" Ron quirked an eye upwards. "Oh, for fuck's sake. It appears shit has hit the fan. _Ra Cailum_ , transport us all up. I'll deal with the consequences later."

They disappeared from the room, watched by a smiling Ozpin.

His smile wouldn't last long.

* * *

As Team CVFY plus R materialized on the bridge, Ron was already in motion. "Red alert! All hands stand to battle stations! And someone explain the situation to these four!"

"Right!" Takeshi replied. "Coco Adel, Fox Alistair, Yatsuhashi Daichi, Velvet Scarlatina, I wish it were under better circumstances, but… welcome to the United Federation of Planets Starship _Ra Cailum_."

"The what of what of what?"

"You're in space on a spaceship. Fuck, get Blake up here! Maybe she can deal with them easier then we can."

"Blake? Blake's up here?"

"And better than ever." Coco spun around to find Blake in the same uniform as everyone else, only with a black undershirt. "Welcome aboard."

"Oh my gosh, Blake!" Velvet hurriedly embraced her fellow Faunus upon seeing Blake's implants. "What happened to you?"

Blake sighed. "It's a long story, but right now, that can wait. Captain, what's the situation?"

"Massive grimm attack on Menagerie: fuckers just swarmed out of nowhere. I'm authorizing all assets used to contain the problem. Except for torpedoes."

"Yeah, and there's this massive dragon-looking fucker flying around." Corpsa said. "And it's dropping Grimm like it's going out of style. The faunus are putting up a defense, but they're _vastly_ outnumbered. They're being led by this big bear of a man."

"Dad!" Blake exclaimed.

She didn't need to ask Ron. "Tell Jaden to launch his mobile suits, launch Mobius, and get the MACOs on the ground. Riza, set a course and ready the forward weapons."

"You want me on the ground, in my Mobile Suit, or in the _Firestorm_ , Ron?" Takeshi asked.

"I want firepower. Take that escort of yours and strafe the ground. Leave none alive, as the old saying goes. Time to show this bitch what it's like to fuck with the Federation. CFVY, take Team RWBY and JNPR and the hunter on the ground. Slaughter the fucking Grimm."

"And what gives you the right to give US orders?"

"The same right that gave me the right to command this ship."

Blake put her hand on Coco's shoulder. "Best to just follow his instructions. Things get done faster that way," she explained as CFVY stepped off the transporter for Takeshi to step onto it, vanishing in a column of light. She tapped her commbadge. "Ruby, it's Blake. Get the team together and geared up, and meet me on the bridge. JNPR, too."

" _What's going on, Blake?_ " Ruby asked.

"Menagerie is under attack."

If Blake could have sounded more solemn, none around knew how.

" _Right,_ " Ruby replied. " _We'll be up there ASAP._ "

* * *

Ghira Belladonna was not amused. He had led the people of this hellhole for a VERY long time. He swore he would protect them.

And god be DAMNED if he let the fucking Grimm ruin the only place where humans and faunus could live in peace!

"WATCH THE FLANK!" The bear roared. "DON'T LET THOSE BEOWOLVES PUNCH THROUGH! PALADINS, KEEP THOSE HEAVY HITTERS PINNED!"

Everyone with a gun had grabbed it and run to the defense of their utopia, including, of all people, the White Fang. They weren't pulling out the stops either, and had deployed all of their Paladins and stolen Atlas gear to defend the people.

The Grimm had the quality of uniting the people.

A Beowolf made a grab for Ghira, but the man simply grabbed it by it's neck and broke its spine.

A massive, ethereal roar reached their ears as the massive Grimm Spawn Mother made another pass, dropping Grimm on their heads.

The defenders killed them in quick order, but not fast enough. An ancient Deathstalker, this one covered from head to stinger in bone white armor, bowled over a Paladin and beelined for Ghira and his makeshift command post.

"KALI!"

A blue beam impacted the Grimm's tail before a black and red blur impacted the Deathstalker, bowling it over. The blur turned out to be two people: a girl with a red cape and a man in a black uniform.

"Alright, asshole, time to die! SUFFER AND DIE!" It grabbed the man with its' pincer, Ghira assuming the man was dead.

But the bastard literally broke the claw, tearing it in half.

"Murder time fun time, fucker! Ruby, regroup with your team! Leave it to me!"

Bolts of orange and pink energy shot over their heads, tearing the Grimm asunder.

Moving with military precision, a battalion of armored men that were _not_ Atlesian army moved their way down the main street, covered by a pair of mechs that _dwarfed_ Paladins.

Another scream filled the air, but this one was man-made, as three fighters flew by overhead, slamming small red projectiles in the Spawn Mother's side, causing it to reel and screech in pain.

Suddenly, the odds had turned in their favor.

"Mom! Dad!"

Ghira turned in astonishment as he saw his little girl, face carrying some sort of implant, run up to them.

"Blake! What are you doing here? And what happened to you?"

"It's a long and VERY complicated story. I just want you to know that I love you." She hugged her father briefly before embracing her mother.

"Blake, sweetie, what are you talking about?"

"Captain Pinkerton will tell you when this is over."

"Captain who?"

Blake pointed at the man systematically tearing the Deathstalker apart.

"That guy."

There was another roar, as Blake growled as she turned as a pair of Beringel appeared, making a charge towards her. She drew out Gambol Shroud to fight them-

* _KA-BLAM_ *

-before both Grimm were suddenly sliced in half, causing Blake to blink. That sounded like…

"Hello Blake… it's been awhile, hasn't it?"

She turned, and saw the absolute _last_ person she wanted to see in a million years. "Adam…" she growled. "What. The _fuck_ are you doing here?"

Adam Taurus smirked slightly, spinning Wilt and Blush expertly in his hands. "We may have differences now, Blake… but the protection of the Faunus of Menagere has and always will be my _top_ priority," he informed.

"So I've noticed."

"And I see you have unique… friends."

"Unique is a word, Adam. Those people make Menagerie look pathetic. They're all different, but they don't care what species you are. I was right and you were wrong."

Adam scowled as the elder Stalker was killed, Ron calmly walking towards them. "That was fun. Annoying, but fun. So who the fuck are you?"

"Adam Taurus, leader of the White Fang's Vale branch, but that doesn't matter. That Salem bitch betrayed us, and she shall pay for it." Wilt flashed out so fast that only Ron and Blake's enhanced eyesight could see it, splitting an intruding Ursa in half.

"Hmm. Rather slow." Roaring was heard from the spawnmother, which dropped more Grimm. " _Ra Cailum_ , beam me back up and tell Riza to prepare for reentry."

" _Aye, sir._ " Ron disappeared in a shower of light, leaving Adam to wonder where he went.

* * *

Salem was at first pleased.

THEN everything went to shit.

Reinforcements had appeared out of nowhere, armed with weapons far more advanced than Atlas tech, watched over by several giant mechs and futuristic fighters, and they were _wiping the floor_ with her Grimm. Thankfully, the spawnmother was still dropping Grimm, so their numbers stayed up.

Adam was slowly being overwhelmed, as his aura was being chipped away, even though he was killing Grimm by the dozens in wide, death-bringing slashes. A Deathstalker managed sneak to up on the Faunus before impaling him in his side. Adam hacked the stinger off, but he was going to die, and this pleased Salem. The boy was disobedient anyway.

Then… _it_ arrived.

 **(BGM: Normandy Reborn, Mass Effect 3 version)**

The clouds parted as their water content was evaporated, evident of a massive orange beam. The beam flashed down like a bolt of lightning and hit it's target, cutting the spawnmother down the middle and bringing light to the battlefield. The monstrosity screamed it's last breath, then fell, leaving two massive parts to fall to the ground, dissolving into black dust.

Clouds moved away as if fearing the oncoming storm. With the roar of massive engines, a mammoth of a warship descended into the air above Menagerie, casting shadow all over.

The ship was apparently named USS _Ra Cailum_.

And it slowly began to kill everything that was Grimm on the island.

Orange beams of light lanced out in short bursts, killing anything hostile, and, despite how much they tried, the Grimm could not reach the ship, much less touch it.

Only now, Salem realized as she watched her Grimm die, how much resistance was futile.

* * *

"Holy FUCK!" The massive dreadnought flew overhead, _slaughtering_ the Grimm.

Ghira and his wife saw the massive ship drop off pods which unleashed more and more security personnel, which slowly but surely slaughtered the Grimm with their superior firepower.

"What the hell is _that_?!" Ghira shouted as the massive starship flew over the city.

"THAT was the _Ra Cailum_." Ghira looked at his daughter, who watched the ship as though it were something normal. " _Odyssey_ -Class, registry Nova-Charlie-Charlie-Nine-Four-Five-One-Seven-Alpha. United Federation of Planets Starfleet. What you're looking at, dad, is a ship that ends wars and builds peace."

"Builds peace, eh?" Ghira looked up at the ship and smiled. "That's a world I would want to live in."

Coughing was heard before Adam approached them, looking VERY much sick. "Blake…"

"My god, what the hell happened to you?"

"Deathstalker." He coughed up blood. "Got me in the back. Blake, we're all idiots. I've seen your… new friends. They aren't all human."

"Dozens of species make up the Federation, Adam. Humans may have been the catalyst, but they were just one of many."

Adam coughed again. "Well, it's good to know that there are people out there that can live with others in harmony."

He collapsed into Blake's arms, and his mask fell off, revealing his eyes. "See that our people will be able to live without fear."

Blake smiled sadly. "I will."

He smiled back, weak. "Good. Good…"

Adam Taurus died a hero.

"Blake, I—"

"It's alright, mom. It's not your fault. It's mine. I was a fool. But… I'm leaving with the _Ra Cailum_."

"What?! Honey—"

"I can't stay here, mom," Blake replied. "We… something happened, and now I'm a danger to Remnant if I stay. Captain Pinkerton can explain in more detail when the battle's over, but… I can't stay."

"Honey, please. If this is about—"

"My blood is dangerous now, mom. I'm sorry. But I have to leave."

The _Ra Cailum_ flew over their island, picking up the pods and recovering her fighters. Ghira glared at the dreadnought.

It saved his people from the Grimm. But it was stealing away his daughter.

* * *

 **117Jorn: Well, you know what they say… you can either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain… at least this time, Adam became the former.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Meh, I'd've let the fucker suffer. For all the pain and death he caused, he was just like Himmler.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: And now JNPR and CFVY have learned about the _Ra Cailum_. Will they stay on Remnant, or join their friends on the Odyssey?**

 **Redemption's Avenger: What do you think? Well, now the planet knows about the _Ra Calium,_ and how will they react? Find out next time on Star Trek: Odyssey! And until then…**

 **Ja ne!**

 **AN: In loving memory of Richard Hatch, AKA Captain Apollo from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica T.V Series. 1945 - 2017. May he always be remembered in our hearts and minds.**

 **So say we all.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Menagerie**

 **2410, Federation Standard Calendar**

* * *

Cleanup was surprisingly swift. Shuttles and tractor beams and transporters helped.

Ghira, however, did not have to like it. After all, the man in charge of the cleanup was taking his daughter away. He had a right to be pissed.

"Look, Mr. Belladona, if we could we would let Blake stay here at Remnant," Jaden attempted to reason with the father. "But in her bloodstream are nanomachines that - if they get out - could bring an end to all life on Remnant, via assimilation into a hive-mind collective. You, your wife, your friends, family, everyone you know and care about on this planet would become nothing but lifeless cyborg zombies. Right now, even _Starfleet_ lacks the tech to get all of that Borg shit out of her system."

Ghira growled slightly "I still do not like this…" he muttered.

"Neither does Blake," Jaden stated, before he sighed "Look… I know it doesn't look good, but we have people working around the clock trying to find a way to help fix Blake's… condition - her implants aren't _as_ bad as Ron's, but they're still very widespread. With some luck… a _lot_ of luck actually, we may someday come across the means to remove all of the implants without harming your daughter… and then we can bring her home."

"Likeliness of THAT happening is nil." Ghira glared at Ron as he approached. "I performed a check of her implants. There are five that we can't reprogram beyond turning off the Borg functions, all of which linked to her nervous, endocrine, circulatory and immune systems, the fifth being the lynchpin of the entire network in her brain. Yes, her body is less invaded than mine is. She's no less screwed. It will take decades to figure out how to remove them. She can have children, but they'd have the benefit of enhanced _everything_ : eyesight, strength, whatever. That shit LOVES to enhance genomes. I mean, look at me. I could probably kill a dozen Gorn in hand to hand and still have enough energy left to run a triathlon."

"And seeing as the Gorn are giant lizard people and one of the strongest races in our galaxy, that's saying a lot," Takeshi remarked.

"Prove it."

"Hit me."

Ghira scoffed. "Your bones are enhanced with… what did you call it?"

"Tritanium."

"21 times harder than diamond. I would break my hand hitting you."

"Only if you hit bone. My gut is unarmored and I'm not wearing my combat-ready uniform."

Ghira sighed, standing up… well, one way or another, with everything that has happened, this would make for at least _some_ stress relief…

* _BAM_ *

His gut caved slightly, but the layer of fat and muscle stopped his fist, rippling as it took the force. "You hit as hard as a Klingon," Ron admitted, impressed, albeit slightly. "Not easy. But I've been hit harder. I took a photon torpedo to the face."

"As in one of the _Ra Cailum's_ primary projectile weapons," Takeshi informed. "Variable yield, max yield could destroy a small _moon_."

Ghira looked at Ron, then at the shattered moon above and back at the man.

This was no man.

He was a demigod!

* * *

"This place is horrid! I mean… look at this place! 80% desert!" Jaden ranted, waving indicating the expanse of sandy land. "And all of it unlivable! If the humans who forced you here weren't already dead, I'd ask Ron to kill the fuckers!"

Blake chuckled at the MS pilot's antics. "I know, but we make the most of what we have."

"And it's not a lot!"

"I know. But we couldn't do anything about it."

"Well, now you can. The _Ra Cailum's_ FULL of fancy technology that can turn this place from a shithole into something better."

"I have the captain's memories, Jaden: I know exactly what's on board his ship."

Jaden grinned. "Well I can solve some problems as well. I can give you some solar power tech that should be able to power the entire village plus any buildup that you make."

Blake nodded before itching at her implant. "Damn it, I thought Rutia was going to remove this."

"Well, we've been too busy to think about removing the damn thing. Why don't you go up to the _Ra Cailum_ , get that thing off your face while I handle making this place more livable?"

* * *

Whitley Schnee walked down the hallways of the family mansion, heading to his father's study.

Turning a corner, he stopped as he spotted a brown ball of fur by his feet.

"What is this?" Whitley crouched down and grabbed the ball.

It moved slightly, trying to cuddle in his hands. The sociopathic boy huffed. He had no use for 'cute' things.

The furball noticed this and reacted like any good tribble would.

It screeched.

And thanks to another sociopathic, but animal-adored, man, it exploded in his face.

* * *

Jacques Schnee jumped when he heard the explosion. His youngest daughter simply sat in her chair, the bag full of fuzzy animals sitting beside her.

The SDC President blinked rapidly. "What was THAT?"

Weiss smiled. "A little present I left for my _dear_ brother."

"You…"

"Oh, I didn't do anything. He probably did something stupid with it. You know how he is with things: uncaring, murderous. Much like Captain Pinkerton, only worse. At least the good captain doesn't screw over family."

Sadly, Weiss was right. Whitley didn't give a _fuck_. "And these?"

"They're called tribbles. Adorable little animals, aren't they?"

Jacques had to admit, they _were_ adorable. "Why do you want to give them to me?"

"Oh, just give one to each of the board members and promise me you'll make something better from the ashes."

He looked at the inconspicuous balls of fur and suddenly thought it was a bad idea to pick one up.

Weiss picked one up and pet it, the animal purring as she did. But unlike Whitney, Weiss was no danger. It knew not to blow up in her face. She was not a Klingon _or_ a sociopath.

"Oh, and do remember that you shouldn't feed them too much. They reproduce like Grimm if you do."

The door exploded open as Winter, on leave, rushed in. "Father, I… Whitley's dead!"

Weiss rolled her eyes. "…And?"

Winter blinked. "Weiss? I didn't know you-"

"Don't worry about that." She stood up and took her sister's arm. "Come on, I have some people I want you to meet."

"…But…"

"Sister, Whitley had the feeling of being someone like Hannibal Lector." The soldier raised an eyebrow. "Right, I spent time on the _Ra Cailum_ , watched a movie called Silence of the Lambs, got a girlfriend…"

Winter blinked again, then lowered her face down to Weiss' level. "You have a _lot_ of explaining to do, young miss."

Weiss grinned. "Oh, I will. Come on, Ruby's waiting."

The two left, leaving Jacques to rethink his and the company's future, even as soft trills filled the air.

* * *

Ron laid back in his chair, snoring. While he COULD fight off a horde of Gorn, run a triathlon and then box with a Klingon for 20 rounds did not mean he was going to.

He was more interested in surviving to run his ship another day. He then awakened to the feel of another warm body on top of him.

"Cassie…" He warned, eyes still closed.

"Hey, Ron," Cassie replied with a smile. "Not much going on aside from the efforts to get ready to follow Larcei wherever she went, but Rose and Xiao-Long went to get their father and uncle, and Schnee just came back with her older sister." She paused. "Also… Sonja and Jaden have been looking over the gateway data, and there might be a new wrinkle."

Ron frowned. "What kind?"

"Well… apparently the portal's destabilization wasn't just spatial," Cassie informed. "Larcei… might have gotten thrown through _time_ , in addition to going to another universe."

Ron's closed eyes opened, the right eye glowing a dangerous red.

* * *

Rutia just put the finishing touches on Blake's cheek, repairing the damage caused by the implant. "THERE. Now you're back to normal."

Blake looked into a mirror. The implant that they didn't have time to remove was gone and she looked back to normal.

But she would never be normal. Never again.

"SONJA!"

"Wow," Rutia remarked. "Don't think Ron's ever been _that_ loud before. He must _really_ be pissed."

"His niece is missing. He didn't have time to be pissed before."

" _You fucking bitch! Get to my ready room! NOW! I have to kick your ass for sending my niece through time like that goddamn pirate song!_ "

Rutia winced. "And looks like he has good reason to be."

"At least he won't kill her. Kick her ass, yes. Kill her? No. He needs her alive."

* * *

Sonja poked her head out of a jefferies tube, upside down at Matt and Mitod. "Do NOT tell him I'm up here!"

"How bad could it be?" Matt asked. "After all, he's limited in that he can't kill you."

"You're basically new, so I can forgive you. But he WILL break me! Physically _and_ mentally! The last idiot to suffer that committed suicide! He opened up the warp core and JUMPED IN WHILE IT WAS ON!"

Matt winced. "OK, I can see how bad that is," he said. "Don't worry, our lips are sealed."

Her head disappeared into the tube, but in came Jaden before something began playing over the comms.

Jaden raised an eyebrow. "Wait… is that Alestorm?"

"I think so," Matt replied. "Wonder what the captain's playing now, and why?"

" _Capt'n! There be Vikings off the starboard bow!_ "

"Back through Time. He's pulling his psychological torture again."

"What, trying to guilt trip her into getting to his ready room?"

Mitod giggled. "Oh, yes."

Matt sighed. "Eh, if I wanted sane I would have asked for another assignment," he muttered.

"You guys are fucking AWESOME."

* * *

Winter looked at the furballs. There were THOUSANDS of them. She had the temptation to bury herself in cute, fuzzy furballs.

Only the knowledge that they had been altered to be able to explode stopped her. She wasn't stupid.

"What sort of evil man would make something like these explode when pet? That's like strapping a bomb to a dog."

"The type of man who wants to put annoying pests to work," came Takeshi's reply. "Luna and I don't have any ourselves, but a few members of the crew picked them up on shore leave once. The numbers grew from a bare handful to over three million in just one WEEK."

"Popular?"

"No. Fast breeders. Feed them just tiny scraps, they're just fine. Feed them anything more, they multiply _exponentially_. Ron decided he didn't want them wasting food stores for no reason, so any that didn't directly belong to a crew member were used to experiment on essentially making living grenades."

"…he's a sadist."

"They came in handy and they don't seem to mind. There was a time where they came in handy during the Iconian War."

* * *

 **Early 2410 - Iconian Dyson Sphere**

* * *

Ron threw tribble after tribble at the Heralds, exploding as soon as they reached their targets. The captain cackled as the grenades purred before they exploded.

"Tribble grenades! Adorably lethal!" He looked at Luna. "I want you to trademark that!"

"We'll see what we can do, Ron," Luna replied, even as she downed a Herald with another headshot. "They certainly are useful, though."

"MORE TRIBBLES! MORE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

* * *

"It was at that point we began to realize that the Borg took more than just most of his organs. They took what was left of his sanity."

"He's insane, but it's a _good_ insane," Takeshi took over from Luna in the explanation. "He's not the type you lock away in an asylum with straightjackets and padded walls, but he has a very warped interpretation of common sense."

"Which is why Jaden LOVES this ship. I bet if Jaden were a girl or Ron was a girl, Jaden would be chasing Ron."

Takeshi and Luna lost their smiles. "Oh, god, I can see that happening."

"Yeah," Takeshi replied with a shudder. "So can I. Well, regardless, what are your thoughts on… well… the entire situation, Specialist?"

"You're insane. You're ALL insane. You two are insane. Your captain is insane. Your CREW is insane! I might go insane simply being around you!" Winter looked at Weiss. "And you're crazy for wanting to go with them!"

Weiss shrugged. "It'll be a helluva lot better than what's down there. Besides, Team RWBY is sticking together. Where one of us goes, the rest of us will follow."

* * *

Patch was a nice island. It was the birthplace of Ruby and Yang and was generally considered the best place to live.

Until the _Ra Cailum_ appeared and gave them hope of worlds without Grimm.

Now, they'd come back one last time, to bring their father and Uncle Qrow up to the ship, to explain everything and see if they wanted to come along.

Yang barely opened the door before her father barreled into her, hugging her. "Goddamn it, Yang, you had me worried! When I heard you disappeared, I was five seconds from leaving Patch to look for you!"

"Thanks, Dad, but I'm fine," Yang replied. "Actually, why Ruby and I came was to talk about that. Is Uncle Qrow around?"

"Yeah, he is. Came back as soon as something changed, apparently. Something about Ozpin and 'some jackass'. I also saw you girls in Menagerie on the news. Would you mind explaining how you girls got involved with that… MASSIVE ship?"

"Let's get Uncle Qrow, first," Ruby replied. "We'd rather only do this once."

"He's in the guest room. Drunk as a skunk. That ship REALLY made him fall off the wagon."

"Not that he was ON the wagon to begin with." Yang muttered.

"Difference between sipping from a flask and downing two bottles of wood alcohol in one go."

Yang and Ruby's amusement faded away. Wood alcohol was toxic to drink, if more pure than conventional drinking alcohol.

"He knows something we don't know and is trying to avoid it." Yang surmised.

Tai nodded. "That's what I've been thinking. Tried to get it out of him, but everytime I try, he takes another swig. He'd kill himself of alcohol poisoning, aura enhancing his liver or no."

"Alright!" Ruby declared, stomping her foot down. "That's enough!"

The young speedster zipped up the stairs, into the guest room, and before Qrow could even blink, swept all the alcohol present and dumped it out the window.

"No more drinks for you!"

The red eyed man moaned, draping his right arm over his eyes. "Quiet down, Ruby. I have a hangover."

"You deserve it. What the heck have you been up to that got you so depressed? If it's the _Ra Cailum's_ unholy amounts of firepower—"

"Nah, it's not that." The drunk waved off the question. "If he was clearing out the Grimm, it'd be done already. I saw what firepower that… THING has. All of Remnant could be united and that thing would swap us like a fly. It's a freaking god compared to us."

"Then what is it?" Yang asked, entering the room and plopping down on the bed.

Qrow sighed and rubbed his forehead with his hand.

"Because that bastard in command… what was his name again? Pink… something. Something pink."

"Pinkerton. His family shares a name with a detective agency's founder, though the meaning of the name isn't exactly… flattering."

"Yeah, that guy. He made me irrelevant."

Ruby snorted. "Uncle Qrow, you're not irrelevant! While she can kill Grimm, it's impossible to kill them all without either destroying the source, or destroying every single spot that doesn't have humans, and they're not gonna do that. Besides, we've got something else for you."

"Yeah, well, he made me irrelevant by… Oh, fuck it. There used to be things hidden at the schools, he moved them to someplace no one can get to."

"And?"

"All I had was the job. Teaching the brats at Signal's one thing, but being in the field is another. I fucking hate that guy."

Ruby frowned. "Well, maybe we can provide you with something new to do," she informed. "I'll need both of you to stand next to us, please."

Qrow groaned before his blood niece (Summer was sister in all but blood, but genetics did matter) dragged him out of bed, throwing him on the couch down below. "Before the whole Menagerie thing, we kinda got involved with an experiment the _Ra Cailum's_ chief engineer was doing. The grimm attacked, as well as two people, a human woman and a scorpion faunus man. The scorpion almost killed me, but a woman saved my life. And she looked like me, only with your hair and eyes."

Qrow's eyes widened. "Fuck me."

"You know who she is. Talk."

The drunk laughed hopelessly. "Ohhhhh, you two are gonna kill me."

Ruby tapped something in her pocket twice before smiling sweetly. "Maaaaaybe."

Qrow sighed. "That was Raven Branwen. My sister, Tai's first wife… and your mom, Yang."

Yang's eyes flashed red briefly. "WHAT?"

"Look, I don't know why she showed up to save you. She said 'one time and that's it'. And she saved you from that brown and pink-haired freak on the train. So I don't know why she showed up the second time."

Ruby sighed. "Anyway, the experiment destabilized, and two people were sucked into a portal: This 'Raven' woman, and the daughter of two of the _Ra Cailum_ 's crew members. They think they're still alive, just in another location - and the _Ra Cailum_ is getting ready to go after them."

"Tell them to have fun."

"We're going with them, Uncle Qrow."

His eyes bulged out. "Like HELL you are!"

"Well, hell's frozen over, unc! We're going: Captain Pinkerton's already given Team RWBY a berth on board the _Ra Cailum._ "

Qrow stood, groaning as his headache worsened, missing a sound. "Then you can tell that fucking son of a whore that he's taking my nieces over my dead body!"

A blade then touched his neck, looking both plain yet exotic.

"Mind giving me that in writing?"

Ruby sighed. "Captain, please go easy on him," she said.

Qrow's eyes widened as he slowly turned around. It was _very_ hard to sneak up on Qrow, even when he was drunk, and he _never_ heard the man coming. The man was fatter than he imagined, but _screamed_ death if he fucked around. "So… when'd you get here?"

"About 30 seconds ago. I beamed in. Surprised Taiyang didn't notice. Hello, by the way."

"Uhh… hi."

"The long explanation will take some time, but the short explanation is that one of their teammates, one Blake Belladonna, was exposed to something from our home that makes her a danger to Remnant if she stays, so she has to come along - and all of her teammates are coming with her out of loyalty."

"Yeah, I can believe that. They're going over my dead body."

"Again, I can remedy that. I have a sword that can kill you, aura or not. But Ruby would hate me. And I'd rather have a happy Ruby instead of one trying to blow up my ship out of spite. Which she might be able to do, if she was determined enough. So, I suggest giving your blessing."

Taiyang sighed. "I suppose there's no talking either of you out of this?" he asked his daughters.

"Nope! And I want to find Yang's mom. Then we can find out why she ran away!"

Qrow sighed, pulling out a flask from Monty knows where. "Alright. Fine. I'm going with you."

"Huh?"

"Hey, asshole. You got room on that abomination you call a ship?"

Ron sheathed his sword, then smacked Qrow with it.

He felt that hit.

"The fuck?!"

"Bit of advice, NEVER insult a ship unless you're a crewmember. As a matter of honor, I should shank you for that."

"I'll go, too," Taiyang said. "If I stayed here while you two left, I'd likely just worry."

Yang grinned. "Works for me," she said. "Plus, you'll get to meet Ruby's girlfriend!"

Taiyang did a double-take, and Qrow did a spit-take.

"…GIRLFRIEND?!" They said as one.

"Speaking of which, I'm going back to my ship." Ron declared. "I need to take a nap."

Ron disappeared in a shower of light, making Qrow look at him in shock before looking back at Ruby.

"Girlfriend?" He repeated.

"Hehehehe. Surprise!"

* * *

Coco looked at the massive dreadnought in the vid again.

Massive in size, more powerful than anything they'd ever seen…

Much like her commander.

Fitting. The overpowered infuriating bastard was in command of an infuriatingly overpowered starship.

And thanks to circumstances beyond their control, Blake was essentially stuck on that ship, lest she become a danger if she stayed behind anywhere. Her team was staying with her out of solidarity, and even JNPR were planning to join them, given that, insanity aside, it seemed better than anywhere on Remnant.

Besides, there was something that Coco had long since forgotten that ship represented.

Adventure.

Almost all of Remnant had been explored: only their reliance on dust kept them from going into space. In fact, Atlas had tried getting access to basic space flight technology form the _Ra Cailum's_ engineers.

Didn't happen, but the space craze, as it was called by the Terrans, was alive and booming on Remnant.

That left one question: Stay and help with the craze, or join the ship and actively get out there to explore not just the universe, but apparently the _multi_ verse?

It was tempting.

Too tempting. There was also the fact that faunus were climbing over themselves to board that damned ship.

Velvet was torn between a better life on the _Ra Cailum_ and her team. Yatsuhashi and Fox would side with Coco, but Coco was the swing vote.

"GodDAMN you, Pinkerton."

"Still trying to make up your mind?" Velvet asked.

"Yeah. Remnant needs defending, but…"

"Well, Captain Pinkerton went on a four-day slaughterfest in the Emerald Forest. Most of the Grimm there that survived his little purge have fled, but there were a LOT of dead Grimm. Something made him mad. I'm glad we didn't."

"Yeah," Coco replied. "Jeez, that man is a one-man wrecking crew… and that's not even counting his crew or ship."

The _Ra Cailum_ had 14 phaser strips, four torpedo tubes, deflector shields, an FTL drive, and Monty knows how many WMDs in that database. If it wanted to blow Remnant to hell, it would have.

And that was discounting the REST of Starfleet.

The _Ra Cailum's_ halfsisters (the _Yorktown_ , _Sojourner_ , and _Endeavour_ -Classes) were as heavily armed, but, according to Blake, suffered structural problems. It was why they never replaced the _Odyssey_.

So, it was little wonder that wherever it went, it was going to draw attention. And with attention often came trouble. And with that came the chance for excitement… oh, screw it, she'd made up her mind. "We're going."

"Really?"

"It's a fucking adventure. And that bastard owes us better shit, so we're going. Call him up."

* * *

Mark smiled as hundreds of Faunus flocked to the temporary ground base on Menagerie. Many had read up on the Federation's history and wanted to be a part of a much better world where they could be free of prosecution. In Mark's opinion, it was awesome.

"So, what do we do?"

Cassie sighed, scratching her head. "Well, Ron's tempted to tell them to fuck off, you know, Prime Directive and all, but he's really not one to turn down willing help. Besides, we need people to crew the new ship."

"But on the flip side, you also need to train them as well."

She nodded. "It depends on how long we stay here, or how much action we see in the next universe. I could use the holodecks to help train them, but it's far more effective to have an actual person who has experienced these things."

"Such as Ron." Mark deduced. "And he's needed to run the ship and bring the firepower."

"Got it in one."

"Well, I don't know how much my opinion counts, but I say bring them."

Cassie raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Mark smiled. "I've always sympathized with the Faunus' problems, it's part of the reason why I used to go after White Fang and anti-Faunus terrorist groups. The White Fang weren't helping the problem, and those xenophobic bastards just were the worst of humanity. To see these people in a better life? I would sponsor that all the way."

 _BOOM!_

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"And someone found the exploding tribbles Cassie beamed down." A lieutenant said in exasperation, heading towards the source of the disturbance.

"…What's a tribble?"

"Balls of fur that breed like Grimm if given too much food. And the captain modified these things to explode if they were too happy."

Mark grinned. "Oh, the ultimate replicating grenades. I think a tribble and some food shall be in my arsenal _very_ soon."

"Just don't make it too happy."

He shrugged. "Eh, I can just gas it."

Cassie shook her head. "You and your gas."

Mark paused, then burst out laughing. Cassie looked at him, processed what she said, then joined him in laughter.

* * *

Yang _stared_ at Ruby's new ammo belt.

Her very _furry_ ammo belt.

"Oh, my god, you're packing _tribbles_?"

"They go BOOM!" The speedster giggled. "And I can always get more as long as I have one!"

Yang shook her head. She'd seen the footage of what happened at K-7.

They were as big a menace as the Grimm, which explained why Ron turned them into grenades.

"I admit I have… _mixed_ feelings about those things," both girls turned to see Jaden and Nena walk towards them - wheeling a large container… "I mean yeah they're practical as hell, but… part of me doesn't like killing cute, little furry creatures."

"Fair enough…" Yang said, "So… what's in the crate?"

Both Jaden and Nena glanced at one another, giggling slightly before the crate suddenly opened… revealing Sonja poking out. "I am not here…" she whispered, waving her hands in front of her face as she retreated back inside.

Both siblings blinked "Uhhh… why is Sonja…?" Ruby asked.

"Hiding from Ron," Nena informed, with a bit of a sigh, "We… learned there is a chance when the Gateway sucked in Larcei and Raven… it might've also temporally displaced them, so… it's possible by the time we get over there… they could be completely different ages than they were when they were here."

"THAT explains his angry look. You can't hide forever, though. He tends to find everything. Ruby tried to hide cookies, but he found them and took them."

"Mean bastard." Jaden commented.

"Then he gave her triple chocolate chip cookies with strawberry gumdrops."

Jaden blinked. Ron gave her better cookies instead?

"What, did he pull them out of a replicator?"

Yang shook her head. "Nope. he made them himself for Larcei, but she's still too young for big cookies."

"…of all things… " Jaden muttered, shaking his head.

"Though surprised _you're_ helping Sonja though, Nena." Yang pointed out, "I thought you hated her… "

"W-well… things… kinda changed… " Nena muttered, her cheeks turning a bit Red - as did Jaden's.

"You're TOGETHER?!"

"Not so loud! And how would you know, Ruby?"

Ruby puffed out her chest in pride. "I have a girlfriend."

The door opened, Sonja ducking into the box as Ron entered the room. "A girlfriend that used one of my tribbles to kill her brother. Normally, fratricide would automatically earn you a death sentence with me, but the asshole was sick in the head in ways that make MY crazy pale in comparison." The captain looked at the crate. "What's in the box?"

"Oh! Uh… just some equipment?… What are you doing down here?"

"Visiting my new crewwomen. And don't change the subject."

"Like I said! Equipment." Jaden informed, putting up a poker face. "Just some gear I want on the _Morningstar II_."

"Wait…. _Morningstar II_?" Ruby asked. Jaden pointed towards the window, and the two girls looked and noticed what appeared to be a sizable vessel looking to be of Starfleet origins just outside the ship. "Whoa… you're building _that_?!"

"Yup. Since the _Ra Cailum_ isn't exactly equipped to handle mobile suits, we agreed to build a ship that could." Jaden informed, "We're using the materials he had on the ship that would've gone to some _Saber_ escorts, and we're even scraping down the original _Morningstar_ for more parts. We've been working on her ever since we arrived at Remnant. She's got Warp capability, Starfleet _and_ GN technology, along with all other sorts of nifty toys."

"It's so big…" Yang muttered, "I mean, _Ra Cailum_ is bigger, but still… how are you gonna staff that thing? I saw your ship, it was… _tiny_ in comparison."

"Yeah yeah, everyone tells me that." Jaden rolled his eyes, waving off the comment. "In addition to my crew and a few volunteers from Ron and Takeshi's, as you no doubt have heard a lot of Faunus from Remnant have expressed interest to join Starfleet. Ron here didn't like it… but we could use their help in staffing the _Morningstar II_ , it'll help them get adjusted to our tech, train how to use the ships… it's a win-win scenario really."

"I'll set up a training course. It'll finally make use of those modified EMH models I made for the Academy."

Ruby blinked. "Huh?"

"Emergency Medical Hologram. Holo-doctors, for lack of a better term. They know they're holograms, but they're DAMN good at their job. Before I was taken by the Borg, I sent doc Zimmerman the idea of modifying an EMH to serve as a high-grade teaching program. After I got back, the son of a bitch sent my the first batch: 200 of them. He then sent me more as a cruel joke as I'm not a teacher anymore. So I'm going to put those things to use now. Sonja, I KNOW you're in there, so get out of the box."

The lid shifted before Sonja poked her head out, fingers held like a cross.

"…That only works if you believe and I know you're an atheist. I've decided I'm not going to kick your ass."

"…Really?" She said hopefully.

"No. Instead, you get to retrofit the cargo bays those _Sabers_ used to occupy as classrooms!"

"…" Sonja sank back into the cargo container, and the group could all hear her muffled screams inside.

Ron laughed madly at that. She had been given a job one of her lower echelon teams would've been doing and had gotten revenge for Larcei.

"Enjoy your trip. Extreme combat will still be my dominion." The captain then left, only to be bowled over by Cassie just as the doors closed.

"Yandere alert, anyone?" Nena made a passable copy of the red alert klaxon, much to the amusement of Team RWBY's sisters.

It wasn't meant to be funny.

* * *

"Ok, how many people am I now responsible for? _Not_ including the baby Cassie is still trying to conceive when I have full control over whether or not I have children?"

Corpsa looked at her PADD. "Well… including the original 334 Crew from the original _Morningstar_ , plus teams RWBY, JNPR, and CFVY, Ruby and Yang's families, Weiss's sister, Thyler, plus the people who wanted to come up with us from Menagere… 2,749 - most of which being Faunus, and most having been sent to the _Morningstar II_." She informed.

"Fuck. Me. Alright, get the fleet into formation. I want a nice clean warp out. And make sure that satellite we put in orbit gets a nice view of us entering warp."

The satellite was made from conventional Remnant-based materials, but Ron decided to give them a network to replace the CCT network. He hacked into it without thinking and made every scroll on the planet play the Jaws theme while playing a video of Ozpin walking.

He gave them the satellites as a way to make nice.

They weren't getting into space anytime soon; there was no harm and no chance of hacking into the network without easily-killable proxies - and they were fully capable of self-maintenance, so Remnant was essentially solid in terms of communications until they learned how to travel into space for themselves.

"Aye sir, ships are moving into position." The _Ra Cailum_ moved ahead, as the _Mercury_ maneuvered along its right flank, and the _Morningstar II_ \- which was at about 79% completion - moved along its left flank.

"Open a channel to the network."

"Done."

"This is Captain Pinkerton of the USS _Ra Cailum_. We thank Remnant for showing us another strange new world and a new civilization. We hope to come back one day. Try not to blow yourselves up in the meantime." Ron gestured to Riza before the ships jumped to warp. "They should get every millisecond of footage until we cross into the next universe."

"Good. How long to the wormhole?"

"Fifteen seconds." Riza reported.

"All hands, brace for wormhole transition."

The three ships disappeared, vanishing from this universe, and onto the next.

* * *

 **117Jorn: And at long last, we leave the world of Remnant behind - and onward towards the next universe!**

 **Ron the True Fan: And here we go down the rabbit hole. 2017 sucks.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Sometimes the rabbit hole can bring you somewhere nice. Other times, not so much.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: So where will the _Ra Cailum_ end up? Find out next time on STOURE! So until then…**

 **Ja Ne!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Earth, 2035**

* * *

20 years ago, the world changed.

20 years ago, aliens came. Humanity fought but governments betrayed their defenders, folding to the aliens.

Now those greedy collaborator bastards went by a new name.

ADVENT.

The world now resided under ADVENT's rule, where humanity either live within the 'protected' cities of the world under ADVENT supervision, with the help of their alien masters, or in the wilderness in the ruins of the old world, seeking out their own living in life, or fighting back against ADVENT with their meager resistance.

The strongest force belonged to the old defenders.

Extraterrestrial Combat Command. Known better by its' acronym: XCOM.

They fought back, they caused blood to run, but it was not enough. Their commander was taken by the aliens in the opening months of the invasion. Without him, their defeat was certain once the governments turned on them.

Now XCOM was back on its' feet, but they still needed to recover their commander.

THAT was where Odin Team came in.

While a smaller team went in to actually secure the commander, given that they'd gotten intel to his location, Odin Team was meant to cause as big a distraction as they could.

Taking down an ADVENT troop column would certainly do the trick.

The members of Odin Team were all normal, except for their commander and her daughter.

Black hair, red eyes and using a sword, she was older now, but was none the less beautiful, and that did NOT stop her from being lethal.

Dropping from the rooftops, the woman landed behind the marching column of ADVENT troops - unaware of her presence.

Her daughter dropped in behind her. Brown hair with a few strands of red, violet eyes, and using a sword that turned into a shotgun. And the ADVENT troops were just as unaware of her as they were her mother.

The older woman unsheathed her sword from her scabbard, the blade colored blood red before she grabbed a trooper and shoved the blade into it, punching through the heart and lungs before dragging it to a bush.

The others didn't even notice.

The younger woman was next, creeping up next to another ADVENT just as he was about to look back, stabbing him right through the back - covering his mouth preventing him from shouting out a warning, before carrying the corpse into an alleyway.

The rest of the troops still had no idea what was going on, as the mother and daughter picked away at their rear guard one by one, while the rest of the team set up an ambush ahead of them.

The officer and the sectoid paused before they felt danger spikes in their psionics. By then, it was too late. Gungnir had been thrown.

And Gungnir ALWAYS hit its' target.

Bullets flew into the troopers like the age-old buzzsaw.

No one remembered the MG42 anymore. So they forgot the nickname the Allies gave it.

Hitler's Buzzsaw.

The ADVENT troopers fell to the ground in bits and pieces. Bloody bits and pieces.

Took every bullet in their 45-round magazines, but they died. "FUCK, we're gonna need new barrels for these things, Mama. These things were NOT designed for continuous automatic fire."

In the old days, people destroyed AKs and AR-15 series rifles doing just that for fun.

"Yeah, that we will," the mother admitted. "Still, good work today."

"Firebrand, this is Odin: targets are down. Come pick us up."

 _"Firebrand acknowledges, Odin 2-1. Hope you brought some toys for the docs."_

"Plenty, Firebrand," the daughter informed. "Just hope that they're ready for them. Status on Gatecrasher?"

 _"They got the package, Odin. I'll be picking them up first. ETA, 20 minutes."_

"Understood." She sighed. "20 years. They're not coming."

"Hey, don't give up just yet," the mother said, placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "They might have run into trouble tracking us, or something. If what you've told me about them is true, they'll come. Just a matter of when."

"My uncle would have found a way. They're not coming. Just like you said when I turned five."

She regretted EVERYTHING she said to her daughter. Back then, she was a cold, ruthless bitch who had zero right to be a mother. It was why she left her biological daughter with her father.

Now she had time to mellow. But her legacy had stuck.

* * *

 **USS _Ra Cailum_ \- Martian orbit**

* * *

The ships emerged from the wormhole and immediately began scanning the area.

They needed to A) find out where they were, and B) find where Larcei was.

"Well, I can confirm we're in the Sol System. Mars orbit. Sonja's going to be happy to be home."

"Fuck Sonja. Wait, that's Jaden's job. Anyway, find Larcei's isolinear tracking beacon."

"Still surprised, and a little annoyed, that you put that in her under the guise of a flu shot, Ron," Takeshi admitted. "I mean, you could have just told us outright."

"What can I say? Sanjuichi's rubbed off on me. I can be a lying BASTARD if I want to. Besides, you wanted to bring her, so I put a tracker in her so THIS wouldn't happen. Be happy that I saw this coming and that we can find her."

Takeshi nodded. "Right, though there's the temporal displacement issue to worry about, too - how much battery time did that thing have?"

"30 years, then it would shut down and use her own body heat and electrical field to recharge itself for a year until it could sent out signals for another five."

Takeshi and Luna _stared_ at him. "You put BORG TECHNOLOGY in our little girl?"

"I put Borg technology in you two as well. ALL of the isolinear trackers have the Borg rechargables in them."

Takeshi sighed. "Just like you to be uber-paranoid, Ron," he replied. "Anyway - any signal coming from the tracker, Kim?"

"A strong signal, coming from Earth in the 560s range."

"What's the exact number?"

Kim checked the frequency. "Uh… 567 kilohertz."

"Meaning it has been 20 years, 1 month, 21 days, 5 hours, 58 minutes and 10 seconds as of now. Congratulations, Take, your daughter is almost as old as you are now. And I believe Sonja is going to die soon."

Takeshi sighed. "Seriously?" he asked. "You calculated that? Jeez." He sighed. "Well, this is going to be awkward as heck. Anyway, what's the situation down there in general? I don't see ESD or any shipyards or anything on Mars, so I doubt we managed to make it home, or anywhere close to our timeframe."

Riza looked at the star charts. "March 2034 or 2035."

"Seriously, you too?"

"You trained to fly escorts and such, Takeshi, I trained to study stellar drift in case of temporal bullshit because of my insane talent making pilot training pointless. I only know it's March, not the exact date."

"March 3rd."

"My brother, on the other hand, DOES because he's a cheating Borg BASTARD."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Love you too, sis."

"OK. So, can we tap into any planetary datanets, see what's going on down there?"

"Some satellites in orbit. Hold on."

" _Excitement continues to build as city centers across the globe prepare for the 20th anniversary of Unification Day,_ " said a black-haired female newscaster on one channel.

On another channel, a blonde newscaster announced, " _Thousands line up at the site of the Great Accord, celebrating the formation of the ADVENT Coalition._ "

On yet another channel, a male newscaster said, " _In keeping with their promise to humanity, 12 new gene therapy clinics will be opening in select cities by the end of the new year._ "

" _Despite the attack by fringe elements,_ " yet another newscaster on yet another channel informed, " _operations at the new facility in Paris thankfully remain unaffected._ "

" _In response to the unprovoked intrusion on the eve of our most beloved celebration,_ " a male broadcaster with dark skin and gray hair informed, " _the Speaker reaches out to us_ …"

A somewhat balding man in sunglasses with… strange spot-like markings on the side of his neck stepped up to a podium.

" _A small number of dissidents again repeat the mistakes of the old world,_ " the man said. " _Striking as we celebrate a benevolent savior who time and again offers only friendship and compassion. Yet these trivial actions could never break the bond between humanity and the Elders…_ "

" _Peacekeeping forces have already made several pre-emptive arrests of known collaborators,_ " the first newscaster said. " _ADVENT again assures all citizens that today's celebrations will continue as planned._ "

"OK, something seems strange here," Takeshi remarked. "Aliens on earth, and while it seems that some people don't like them, all the newscasters speak the party line and praise them? Either the antagonistic people are really _out there_ mentally, or we're dealing with an invasion and information control."

Ron sat silently. "Well, I know what I'm doing." He then departed the bridge.

"And other than getting Larcei out, he's going to quote the fucking Prime directive up and down like a bible thumper."

"Well, it's not our universe. Is it any of our business?"

Kim raised a good point. They were the strangers in the strange land. They didn't have all the information and they had no right to do anything.

Then the ready room doors opened, showing Ron in full MACO battle armor, his assault phaser holstered on his hip and compression rifle on his back, joined by a G36E and an MG4, which was basically just a modified MG42 in 7.62mm NATO.

"Time to get completely involved and kick some serious ass!"

"Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay…" Takeshi muttered. "Who are you and what have you done with Ron?"

"One, Larcei's down there. Two, Ekos. Three, I'm PISSED at Sonja and I can't take it out on Jaden's girlfriend so I'm TAKING IT OUT ON THEM!"

Takeshi nodded. "That makes sense," he said. "Luna, load up - we're going, too."

"Killing time!"

* * *

Adrian Sheridan used his crutches to hobble into the command deck. "I hate those alien fuckers. Keep me in a GODDAMN SUIT for 20 FUCKING YEARS!"

Bradford chuckled. "Well, Commander, it's nice to see you on your feet."

"Thanks," Adrian replied. "Good to _be_ on my feet. So, aside from the obvious, what's the situation?"

"We're in the shit, up to here." He put his hand above his head. "ADVENT controls the entire planet and we're having a hard time hurting them. Thankfully Raven and Tempest are making up for our lack of real recruits."

"Raven and Tempest? Who the hell are they?"

"A pair of women who literally dropped in on us soon after your capture," Bradford replied. "A mother and daughter pair. Tempest was just a little girl at the time, but she grew up with us, and the pair have helped us out a fair bit."

The commander got to his command table, sitting down. "So, no underground base?"

"A stolen transport. They hate us for it and we keep snubbing them for it."

Sheridan grinned. "Fuckin' A! Let's get to work. We have a planet to liberate."

Bradford grinned in return. "That we do, old friend. That we do."

* * *

 **Shuttlecraft _Ra-Horakhty_ \- entering Earth's Atmosphere**

* * *

"One more drink at the Sunk'n Norwegian! One more drink before we have to die! One more drink at the Sunk'n Norwegian!" Takeshi groaned. Ron's singing wasn't THAT bad when he wanted to actually entertain. "Raise up your tankards of ale to the sky! One more drink, at the Sunk'n Norwegian! One more drink, before we have to die! One more drink, at the Sunk'n Norwegian! Raise up your tankards of ale to the sky!"

"I like Alestorm as much as the next person, Ron, but why are you singing their songs _now_?"

"Because I have to think like a pirate and this shit gets me in the pirating mood!" Takeshi had to surrender to Ron's twisted 'logic'.

'Logic' because Ron was fucking nuts. He just controlled it to the point where he SEEMED sane.

"Anyway, what's our first target?" Takeshi asked. 'Our' in this case referring to Ron, Takeshi, Luna, and Team RWBY, who had elected to come along.

"Anything that catches the resistance's and ADVENT's attentions. So, in short, kill everything."

"But… people."

"CIVILIANS are not to be touched. They wear anything that remotely looks like armor, you kill it. They got a weapon and they're pointing it at you with intent to kill? Take them out however you have to. If they live, cool. If not, same. Unlike Mr. Hiroshima here, I believe in moderation when it comes to my slaughtering of the enemy. Just enough to take them out and no more."

"Mr. Hiroshima?" Ruby asked. Team RWBY was coming along to provide assistance or just bring the hammer down.

Takeshi sighed. "Hiroshima is a city on Earth in our joint home country of Japan. It was hit with a nuclear device in the 1940s."

"A device that was so powerful that it _destroyed most of the city_ and left it barren thanks to radiation when the target was a military installation. Takeshi wants to avoid thinking about it, but there is such a fucking thing as OVERKILL for shit like that. His way would be 'NUKES FOR EVERYBODY!'."

"Alright, fine, maybe Maxim 37 doesn't apply all the time," Takeshi admitted. "Still, it's good for making a statement."

"So was Hiroshima and it was bad enough that for 110 years no one even THOUGHT of using nuclear weapons."

"He's right." Blake informed."The radiation left Hiroshima a radioactive hellhole until the Vulcans decontaminated it after First Contact in 2072." Blake blinked and cocked her head to the side. "I'm not sure how I know that."

Ron pointed at his head. "My fault."

Takeshi sighed. "Anyway, what I meant was where are we going to be striking first?"

"Well, right now, we need information, so, you guys are infiltrating one of those geneclinics while I go kill something and find your daughter."

"Gotcha," Takeshi replied. "You want RWBY to go with us or with you?"

"You take the gemstone, I'll be fine."

"Gem… stone?"

"RWBY. As in ruby? It's a red, diamond-hardness jewel that is considered Cancer's birthstone. Which is also MY birthstone: July 14th is a Cancer's birthday."

Weiss shook her head. "I don't want to know."

"Get the hell off my shuttle and kill everything you find. And bring pictures!"

"Will do," Takeshi replied. "Open the hatch, we'll drop in from here!"

The rear hatch dropped down, allowing them to exit. "Have a nice fall!" Ron then pulled the shuttle into a climb.

As in the nose pitched up 90 degrees and they fell out.

"RON, YOU INSANE TROLL!" Takeshi yelled, even as they began orienting towards the ground, figuring out their own individual landing strategies.

Luna had taken a page out of Ron's rulebook and used AG boots to slow her fall, but unlike Ron she couldn't fly without more fine controls.

He was a cyborg: he had wireless controls.

Takeshi had taken a page out of RWBY's book, and was using pulsewave blasts to slow his descent. Given that 'Unification Day' was coming up, any onlookers would have assumed someone was letting off a uniquely-designed firework early. And, of course, RWBY was doing what they usually did for landing strategies.

At least it wasn't orientation day at Beacon.

They landed on the ground, thankfully out of sight. NOW they had to stay that way. "Ok, let's find out how to do some damage without taking damage."

"Got cheat codes?"

"Very funny, Yang."

"Jeez, the buildings all look the same," Takeshi remarked as they looked around. "Different shapes, yeah, but all white and blocky and uniform and sterile. They even got rid of any original architecture…"

"PRAY Ron does not fly over Kyoto."

Ruby looked at Blake in confusion. "Why?"

"He was born in Kyoto. That is the most Japanese of Japanese cities: it was the capital during the feudal era."

"Yeah, if he sees Kyoto in this state, he might go all Maxim 37 on the place," Takeshi remarked. "He has an Aggression Inhibitor that keeps him from going overboard, but it has two separate manual overrides - one remote external, which we call 'The Button' and press whenever we need a lot of shit to die really quickly… but the other is internal, and is tied to his emotions, specifically anger. Get him mad enough, and it trips. Either way, turn that inhibitor off, he goes full berserker, and can't distinguish friend from foe."

Yang whistled. "Like me times a thousand."

"Yup."

"That's bad."

"Worse. He cannot be stopped. You can hit him. You can shoot him. You can blow shit up in his face and he WILL NOT STOP. EVER. Until whatever he is looking for is dead. The Klingons, the Romulans, the Borg, the Vaadwaur, even the Iconians learned that lesson. They're terrified of him on the ground _and_ in space."

"Because the _Ra Calium_ is _so_ much nope."

"Exactly!"

* * *

Ron looked at his hometown. EVERYTHING was gone.

All starchy uniform whiteness, no real individuality…

His eye twitched. "Everything. DIES. Just not the civilians. Touch them and you die. I don't do that. But mindless destruction I can do!"

Ron drew his compression rifle, and in one swift movement, blew off a passing officer's head.

And that was when the carnage started.

 **(BGM: Firestorm by Sabaton** )

EVERYTHING that he saw was shot at: troopers, mechs, officers, even the aliens that looked like anthropomorphic Roswell Grays.

"TIME TO DIE!"

* * *

On one of the rooftops, a group of XCOM soldiers watched the carnage.

"Wow, that man's a one-man wrecking crew," one of them remarked.

He never touched the civilians, leaping over them to get at the enemy, usually shooting them with that particle rifle or hacking them apart with that sword.

Or his bare hands. That poor Sectoid…

They PITIED ADVENT's forces now.

"Geez, I never knew someone could do that much overkill."

"You want to let Central know?"

"Uh…"

"THAT'S RIGHT, FUCKERS! COMPARED TO YOU DREGS OF SHIT, I AM A DEMIGOD!" He screamed as he beat a officer to death with his own head.

"…You heard the man. He's a demigod. That means 'YES'!"

* * *

"Seriously?" Central said, shocked, into the comm unit. "He literally called himself a demigod?"

Tempest poked her head into the command center.

" _Uh… yes sir. He kept getting shot and nothing stopped him. It was like he was a berserker, only… unkillable. And he went out of his way to not touch the civilians. He killed a few, but they turned into… well, they weren't human. It's like he KNEW_. _He's beating Advent to death with their own heads! He's doing things that shouldn't be possible!_ "

Tempest went further into the command center. This description… it couldn't be…

" _JUST GROW YOUR LEGS BACK! SUMMON UP YOUR DEMONS! HIT ME! FIGHT ME!_ **GIVE ME A HUG _._** "

Bradford backed away from the console at hearing that VERY disturbing voice.

"No way…" Tempest whispered. She knew that voice. But it had been 20 years. How…?

" _WHERE IS MY NIECE, FUCKERS?! My name is RONALD FUCKING PINKERTON AND YOU ALIEN FUCKS WILL TELL ME WHERE SHE IS AND DIE!_ "

It was him. Her uncle was here.

"UNCLE RON!"

Bradford turned to her. "Seriously?" he asked. "THAT is your uncle?!"

"YES!" Tempest yelled happily. "But why did he take so… oh, dammit! Of course! It can't ever be easy, can it?!"

"What is it?"

"Time travel! I was sent BACK in time! For them, it's probably been a day, for me it's been two decades! FUCK! I'm an idiot!"

She looked at Bradford. "Bring him here."

"Tempest, that—"

"My name, sir, is Larcei Yamato. And you WILL bring my uncle here or you'll risk him destroying EVERYTHING you want to rebuild while he looks for me."

Bradford paled. "Alright, you likely heard the lady," he said over the comm. "Make contact and bring that guy back here!"

* * *

The commander of the team paled. "FUCK THAT, sir! He's tearing ADVENT apart! We even approach, he'll kill us!"

" _We need to make contact!_ "

"With respect, sir, FUCK YOU! We're evacing!"

" _Maybe we could leave some kind of message beacon,_ " Tempest - no, Larcei - suggested. " _Something that will let him know to come see us without making contact directly._ "

They decided against giving him anything that would let him get to the Avenger.

Unfortunately for THEM, Ron knew where they were and threw a tracking dart at one which cloaked once it hit him. They ran. They ran SO far away.

But they couldn't hide. Not from him.

* * *

"Seriously?" Larcei's mother figure asked, unknowingly mirroring Bradford in her shock. "Time Travel?"

"It's happened. Repeatedly. My uncle even ended a war using it. They REALLY hate time travel, though, my parents. Gives dad a headache. Still, we ended up in the past, or time progressed faster here or something. Talk to my uncle: he's the expert on this."

"I think I will," she said. "Still. They came. Just as you always said they would. I… I'm sorry for saying they wouldn't, back all those years ago."

"I started to doubt, too."

The ship then shook before alarms went off.

"The fuck was that?!"

Larcei sighed. "He tracked Lambda Team here. And he's probably figured out I'm here and he's PISSED."

"We have a visual on the attacking… My god."

"Put it up!"

The image was a craft that was fairly boxy, but with graceful curves at the front, with twin engine nacelles sticking out of the bottom. Several of the older crew recognized it from the pre-ADVENT days - namely from a certain science fiction franchise.

"…Is that the _Galileo_?" Sheridan asked in disbelief. "From Star Trek? Bradford, tell me—"

"I wish you were, sir, because I'm seeing the _Galileo_ from The Final Frontier shooting at us." The _Avenger_ shook before the ship was forced down, pissing off EVERYONE below decks.

" _Is a fucking alien ship shooting at us?!_ " XCOM's chief engineer shouted over the comms.

"You could say that, Lily."

"Nope, just my pissed off uncle and his personal shuttle, the _Ra-Horakhty_."

"THAT'S your uncle, Tempest?" Adrian asked.

"Yes, and my name's Larcei," she replied. "Now hurry up and make radio contact with that thing. I can stop him attacking easily."

"If he doesn't knock out the comms."

* * *

"It's WAY too easy. Then again, not in the mood to care." The comm beeped before Ron answered. "Ronald Pinkerton here, giving you the finger since 2371. How may I help you?"

" _HI, UNCLE RON! What kept you?_ " came the reply, one that he recognized nearly instantly, despite it being 20 years older than the last time he'd heard that voice.

"Larcei, nice to see you're alive. Blame Sonja for sending you back in time. She's been screwed for it, so I'm ready to take you home. And kill every FUCKING thing on this planet that doesn't belong."

" _I doubt it was her fault, but whatever,_ " Larcei replied. " _Now, if you'd kindly stop shooting, everyone on this ship is friendly. Say hello to XCOM, who tried to fight the aliens when they first invaded 20 years ago, and had to go underground after the ADVENT Coalition was established. They're starting to get back into the fight now, to drive the aliens off of Earth. They took me in, along with the woman who came with me - she's practically raised me these past 20 years._ "

"She still owes her biological daughter some answers and I will BEAT it out of her if I must."

" _And she knows she can't beat you. Seriously, you fought ICONIANS and won: Raven would be a hard fight, but you'd kill her if you wanted to and she knows that._ "

Ron deactivated the weapons. "I'm coming in for a landing. Brace yourselves."

* * *

"He's mad, but he'll give you a free pass. DO NOT MAKE HIM MORE MAD. Then he'll kill everyone on this ship without a second thought. Avoid him. My memories of him tearing a man in half are not a bright spot in my childhood."

Adrian nodded. "Right," he said. "Still… hard to believe that Star Trek is actually _real_ …"

The doors opened, revealing the self-proclaimed (and probably just to mock ADVENT) demigod in full battledress.

Everyone backed off. This wasn't a _demi_ god. It was a _god of death_ , a _shinigami_ , in his full power. _Their_ death, if they weren't lucky.

"Morning, campers. You have something of mine." He racked the bolt of his rifle back, ejecting the spent casing. "I'd like to take it back."

Larcei hit him with a tackle glomp. "Hey, Uncle Ron," she said. "Good to see you again."

"Larcei. Ready to go home?"

"I, uh… I need to help them free Earth, Uncle. I owe them that much."

"And they'll get that. Where's the commander of this rag tag group?"

"Right here," Adrian said as he walked up. "Adrian Sheridan, commander of XCOM. Though I was captured and imprisoned by the aliens until recently, with Central Officer John Bradford here running things in my stead."

"What do you need?"

"Huh?"

"What can I give you that I can get this planet freed faster so I can take my niece and leave? An NX-Class cruiser? Better guns? More guns?"

"I'll certainly need to think about it - I'll need to look over what we know of your universe before I make up my mind."

"…Did Larcei break the Prime Directive?"

Larcei shook her head. "It's a bit stranger than that," she admitted. "Uncle Ron… we're sci-fi here."

"Explain. Now."

"Well, it started with a man in 1964 creating an idea that would be turned into a television series that was deemed a failure in its' time. Then it became a cult classic: the fans loved it so much that any network that played it would be instantly watched. Paramount's 79 Jewels, they called it. It was called Star Trek."

"And what's so important about that?"

"The main focus of the 1960s series was the USS _Enterprise_ NCC-1701. Captained by James Tiberius Kirk."

Ron's eyes widened slightly. Any idiot in Starfleet knew that name. Knew that ship. Knew that crew. Knew the voyages of discovery that turned the Enterprise Delta Arrow into the symbol of all of Starfleet.

"It got better. Fans demanded it return. It got a brief animated series, then in 1979, it returned to the silver screen as Star Trek the Motion Picture. The V'ger Incident." Ron knew those reports by heart.

"And finally 2285 with the second movie. The coffin's nail. Star Trek II. The Wrath of—"

"KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

Adrian blinked, running a finger in his ear. "I take it you saw the reports in your universe."

"Reports, comm logs, everything. That yell entertained everyone. Spock's death did not."

"He came back in the next movie, the Search for Spock."

"PLEASE tell me they didn't show what happened to the Big E."

Adrian sighed. "They did. The movie after that, Voyage Home, showed the Whale Probe incident, and the unveil of the _Enterprise_ -A."

The youngest of the first-gen _Connies_ being renamed and re-registered _Enterprise_ was a surprise to all back in the day, but the _Enterprise_ was a symbol. The B was in development by then.

"The fifth movie involved Nimbus III."

"THAT debacle was an insult."

"Movie Six was The Undiscovered Country. 2293."

"The Khitomer Incident. And the end of an era."

"Of course, the fifth and sixth movies were precluded by a new TV series in 1986," Adrian informed. "The Next Generation, covering the _Enterprise_ -D with Jean-Luc Picard."

"What about the B and C?"

"The B was seen briefly in Generations, the seventh movie, while the C was featured in a TNG episode which was considered one of the best. Involved alternate timelines."

"LOVE those."

"Movie seven was the death knell of the D. The Amargosa/Viridian Incident."

Ron blanched. The Tranche One Galaxies were PLAGUED with problems, all involving their computers or shields. The D's shield generators were fused thanks to those torpedoes. The D killed the Duras Sluts, but they had the last laugh by killing the Federation Starfleet's flagship.

"Running concurrently with later seasons of TNG was DS9, another series dealing with the space station Deep Space Nine and the Bajoran Wormhole. I'm not sure, but I think ratings went up after the debut of the _Defiant_ , or Ben Sisko's Motherfucking Pimp Hand as some fans call it, and then I think they really took off after Worf joined the crew in season 4, when the Klingons invaded Cardassian space. Of course, Sisko himself is considered the most badass of Star Trek captains, partly because he's the only man shown who has punched Q in the face."

"I kick Q's ass everytime I see him."

"We know." Takeshi replied.

"Wait…" Sheridan raised his head, a grin coming across it. "You kick Q's ass."

"Repeatedly."

One of the XCOM Personnel leaned over to one of their buddies. "Fucking-A man… " he muttered.

"Q? As in Q-Q? The same Q that snaps his fingers and shit happens? FUCK, this guy's a god if he can do that without worrying!"

"Anything else?" Ron asked.

"Well, three more movies after that," Adrian continued, "Next was First Contact - the _Enterprise-E_ goes back in time to stop the Borg from assimilating Earth before they make first contact with the Vulcans - Picard going Ahab on the Borg motherfuckers."

"So would I. Read the report."

Adrian made a point to read that Report once he could. "Alright… after that we have…" he let out a low growl and an eyeroll. " _Insurrection_ , the one with the Ba'ku and Son'a…"

"The Briar Patch Incident. Gah, that was a debacle and a half."

"It was a complete waste of time, and the one time I thought Starfleet were being _idiots._ " Adrian ranted. "For fucks sake, Starfleet just let that tiny patch of humans benefit from the effects of that world, when they could've allowed _so many more people_ benefit from it! Especially considering its right _after_ the fucking Dominion War! And Star Trek is a show about how advanced technology can help save us! Not some hippie 'let's get back to nature' bullshit! And Picard helped in not one, but _two_ prior relocation mission - one of which happened to be _native americans_ for crying out loud! He was in no position to be preaching about how 'bad' relocations to the Admiral!"

There was a bit of a silence as everyone just sorta stared at Adrian - the XCOM Commander letting out a short sigh. "Sorry… sorry… still a bit tense… but I just really fucking hate Insurrection…"

"That incident led to a purge of the Federation Council."

"Then there was Nemesis, which had the Reman—"

"The Shinzon Incident."

"I take it you know."

"I commanded a _Sovereign_ -Class starship and I rammed it into one of the _Scimitar's_ sisters. The irony was not missed."

Adrian chuckled "Oh… we're gonna get along _fine,_ Captain," he said. "I'll talk about the reimaginings later… on another note though… what can XCOM do for you, Captain?"

The captain sighed. "I want all the data you have on our universe. In exchange, we'll help you out. I'm mad. And I want revenge."

"You'll have it… but uhh… doesn't this kinda break the prime directive?" Adrian asked, "I mean… I wouldn't be a true Trekkie if I didn't bring _that_ up… "

"The Prime Directive has a good idea. But they didn't take into account how FUCKING PISSED I can get and being a nice guy. You've been invaded illegally, the aliens refuse to listen to reason. Time for gunboat diplomacy." His eye glowed dangerously. "And I have a VERY big gunboat."

"…what kind of Gunboat?"

"USS _Ra Cailum_ , _Odyssey_ -class Dreadnought."

Adrian blinked… before he grinned "Oh hell the fuck _yes_."

The _Odyssey_ -Class was Adrian's favorite STO ship. It was the _Enterprise_ -F's class, the most powerful Federation starship in the game.

And Ron commanded one.

ADVENT was officially _fucked_.

* * *

Sonja flopped down onto bed, groaning into a pillow. "Never… again…" she muttered.

"Come on, it wasn't _that_ bad," Nena said, giggling slightly sitting next to her along with Jaden. "We were just building a few classrooms."

"A job my more idiotic engineering teams could have done. He was punishing me for the whole Larcei thing since he can't screw YOU over. You're still technically Celestial being, not Starfleet."

Jaden chuckled. "I doubt the crazy bastard would make things worse for us."

"Jaden, if you were a girl, you would be head over heels for him. You're attracted to crazy. It's why you're here."

The CB Engineer shrugged "Maybe, then again that's why any of us are here," he said. "And on the Gateway bit - don't blame yourself, we had everything built _perfectly_. It's probably Raven's fault - when she started teleporting everywhere that's when the Gateway went mental."

Sonja just groaned, planting her face into a pillow… before suddenly she felt someone press against her back, and she moaned a bit "Huh?" She glanced back and saw Jaden massaging her back. "What are you…?"

"You're too damned tense," Jaden chuckled, "Just relax - you've been working all day."

"But I need-" She began to say, before Jaden began beating against her back, hitting all of the right places as Sonja let out another surprised moan.

"…you never told me you could do back massages," Nena said, looking a bit pouty.

"Well, no one ever asked." He shrugged, continuing with Sonja's massage.

"Just… don't stop. Best massage I've had. Not counting that time Mitod used that oil. I felt REALLY weird for a few days after that."

Jaden had an idea of what her assistant used… and made a mental note to ask Mitod for the oil.

The comm beeped before they got a semi-unwelcome voice. "Rise and shine, people: we've got things to kill and a planet to liberate."

"What do you want, boss?"

"Found Larcei, got a new job for you people. We're going killing."

Jaden smirked. "Anywhere particular?"

" _XCOM Base for starters, need to get these people ready for war._ " Ron said.

"We'll be down there in a bit," He said, continuing Sonja's massage. "Just finishing some… stress relief exercises."

" _The hell does that-_ " Ron began, before Jaden hit a particularly sensitive spot, and Sonja let out a very loud moan.

" _You're giving her a massage._ "

"How'd you know?"

" _I'm a Borg: I know everything the Borg know and they have DETAILED files on masseuses. The Queen had an_ incredibly _unhealthy obsession with sex_."

Jaden 'buhed' before Ron went on. " _What, you think that look she pulls is for efficiency's sake? She pulled the seduction trick on Data once, for fuck's sake!_ "

"Of all the things the Borg keep memorized…" Jaden muttered, hitting a spot in Sonja's neck causing her to moan again. "We'll be down there in a bit Ron - don't kill of the alien menace without us!"

" _Wouldn't dream of it. Just leave the Mobile Suits in orbit. Don't want to give the alien fuckers any ideas._ "

Jaden groaned, but unfortunately saw the logic. What you see, you copy.

It happened with the Thrones, it happened with the GNXs and it would probably happen with the _Ra Cailum_ back in his universe.

"Got it, be down there in an hour. Takeo out." He tapped the comm badge, turning it off.

"We should go-"

"Na-ah, not finished yet." Jaden grinned.

"But we have to-" Sonja's protests were cut off as Jaden hit a spot on her lower back, causing her to let out a louder moan. "OHhh _fuuuuck_ … "

"Ron can handle without us for one more hour," Jaden informed, " _You_ need a break."

"…you're gonna do that to _me_ next, right?" Nena asked, feeling a bit left out.

Jaden chuckled. "How could I forget about you, Nena?" he asked. "Go on and lay down… "

* * *

After the meeting, Larcei had taken Lily aside for a bit of a private discussion.

"How are you doing, Lily?" Larcei asked. "I… I'm sorry I haven't really had a chance for private time these past few weeks…"

"It's ok. You told me your uncle would find you again." She then chuckled slightly "Seriously, though, Star Trek?"

"Is that a problem? He always said that 'all things are fiction and all things are reality'. I never got that until I watched Star Trek with Bradford. It means that every fictional universe out there actually exists in some way. That they're real. That we're real."

"No, it's not a problem," Lily replied. "Just… surprising." She then looked downcast. "So… you'll likely be leaving soon…"

"Yeah…" Larcei replied. "But it doesn't mean we have to break up… I'd actually like you to come with me."

"Larcei, I'd be useless on that ship! Starfleet engineers make me look pathetic."

"You're young! You can learn. I want you to come with me, Lily. Especially to meet my parents."

"If your uncle is any indication, they're terrifying."

"They're not _quite_ as bad as he is," Larcei replied with a grin. "But yeah, I think you'd do well on the _Ra Cailum_ … and I don't want to be separated from you."

"Larcei…" Lily whispered.

"Lily… I've thought about this a lot," Larcei replied. "I… I was planning on doing this when my family showed up, or when we liberated Earth, whichever came first…" She pulled a box out of her pocket as she got down on one knee. "An-yi…" she opened the box, revealing a beautiful diamond ring. "Will you marry me?"

Lily looked at the ring, then her girlfriend and back at the ring before throwing her arms around Larcei. "Yes!" She then backed away before planting her lips on Larcei's, kissing her as heatedly as she could get away with.

After all, the uncle was on board and he could see through walls, apparently.

Larcei blushed as they pulled away from the kiss. "Thank you, Lily," she replied, smiling. "I love you…"

The radio buzzed before Ron's voice came over it. " _Congratulations, Larcei!_ "

"DAMN IT, UNCLE!"

" _Hey, I was looking at the power distribution network, not your makeout session. THAT was an unwanted bonus that I'd rather forget, but can't._ "

She sighed. "Right," she replied. "Well, do you think you could give my fiancee and I some privacy?"

" _I'm trying VERY intently not to look in your direction. Unfortunately, Tygan's asking questions and I can't bullshit him forever. Charge the walls with a current of 120 kilovolts with an amperage of .14. I'm resetting my eye to be blind to that._ "

"Electrify the walls?"

" _Hey, you want to make love with your girl without me watching or not?_ "

Larcei smiled. "Thanks, Uncle Ron," she said. "I'll owe you one for this."

" _Name one of the grandbabies after me or my mother and I'll consider it even._ " The radio then buzzed.

Lily blushed at the thought of babies.

"He's encouraging us, Lily. Let's get this love shack Ron-proofed."

* * *

On the _Ra Cailum_ , Takeshi was both angry yet pleased. His daughter was fine.

Although she was 23 now. Barely 6 years younger than he was.

"Jeez, it's hard to believe we missed out on most of our daughter's childhood," he told his wife.

"And that BITCH Raven raised her." Luna was tempted to go back down there, grab her rifle and blow Raven's head off.

She was no Pinkerton by blood, but she was raised by Ayame and her son. Family was NOT fucked with.

But Ron made sure she wasn't killing Raven.

At least not before Yang and co got their answers and before HE got his claws into her.

"Yeah," Takeshi replied. "Well, we don't know if she mellowed at all. Let's see what happens with Yang first."

"It's going to be WEIRD. Our daughter's as old as we are and about to become a big sister."

"Ye—wait, WHAT." Takeshi looked at Luna. "What."

"You forgot your shots."

Takeshi blinked before looking at the hypo on the bedstand. It still had a full charge.

From last _month_.

"Oh, Ron's gonna kill me."

"Probably not directly," Luna admitted. "You know him and family. Probably going to try and stick you with another round of paperwork, though."

Takeshi groaned. "That's even _worse,_ " he said. "I don't care what anyone says, paperwork is a demon from the deepest fiery pits of hell - why else do you think I avoid it by training?"

"Well, when we move off the ship, you can't avoid it."

Takeshi groaned. That was the main reason he hadn't fully left the ship.

PADDs and PADDs of forms and more forms. And he couldn't avoid them if he became the captain: paperwork was MANDATORY! It was why Ayame and Ron had more free time on their hands: they were part-bureaucrat without the bullshit!

"We're gonna need a secretary," Takeshi remarked. "She won't be able to deal with all of the paperwork, but she can deal with everything that doesn't need our signature directly. We can reduce the paperwork that way."

"Still going to leave us with 60% of the load."

"…Think I can still—"

"No, you can't force it onto Ron. He'll notice. And then he'll make what happened that week with Q look tame."

Takeshi paled. "Me no want, me no want, me no want, me no want, me no want, me no want, me no want, me no want, me no want!"

"Thought so. Come on. We've got a world to save."

* * *

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yes, Takeshi's opinion on paperwork is my actual honest opinion on the subject, too.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Yeah, bit of a running joke with Star Trek and Star Wars writers.**

 **117Jorn: And Naruto writers as well… in fact I think its a joke across the multiverse.**

 **Ron the True Fan: And somehow, Ron and his family are like Hermes Conrad without being locked in the bureaucratic bullshit system. LOCK UP YOUR WIVES AND DAUGHTERS!**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Anyway, we've met up with Larcei again, she's proposed to her girlfriend, and her little sibling is on the way.**

 **Ron the True Fan: And now ADVENT is fucked. Well, time to go find a turkey.**

 **117Jorn: YES!**

 **Ja Ne!**

 **Post Edit: We wrote this arc LONG before War of the Chosen was released, let alone _announced,_ so no, you will not see the Chosen, Templars, Lost, etc. Sorry.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Earth, 2035**

* * *

Jaden looked at his homeworld. There were fewer and fewer lights than he wanted to see.

Nothing was unique.

Everything was white, uniform and bland.

ADVENT fucked over Earth.

"You know… Celestial Being's main goal was to prepare human kind for first contact," he mused, "To prepare for 'the dialogs to come'… if _these_ are the aliens we were gonna meet… fuck the dialogs, give me nukes."

He heard scraping before he found Sonja dragging a photon torpedo. "Fuck your nukes. Antimatter warheads!"

Jaden blinked before laughing his ass off. If Ron were here, he'd one up that somehow.

THAT train of thought ended swiftly. Sonja was right.

If Jaden was a girl, Ron WOULD be dating him. He was attracted to crazy and Ron was the RIGHT kind of crazy for him.

"Stupid sexy Ron."

"I know he's the right kinda crazy for you, but he's not exactly the most attractive man in the universe. He's fat."

"That's natural body armor. I could punch him for hours and he'd be FINE. He's a polar bear in human skin!"

"…Not a grizzly?"

"Nah, polars are bigger and nastier."

Sonja chuckled. "Not as nasty as T. rex. Takeshi was screaming for DAYS."

He'd heard the report of that. Apparently some scientist had the idea of doing something like that old film Jurassic Park, but using an entire planet for the 'park'. The _Ra Cailum_ had come in to check out the security, and Takeshi had ended up chased by a T-Rex.

And somehow, ALL of the dinosaurs gravitated to Ron like puppies. It was creepy.

He'd seen the cuttlefish, but seeing a fuckton of Dromaeosaurs (they were the size of turkeys, but they weren't Velociraptor mongoliensis) cuddling with him was insane. Even the rex liked him.

"I've gotta go there for vacation when we get to your universe," Jaden said. "So… what shall we do while we wait for Ron to tell us to mobilize the MS Force?"

"Go on a date?"

"I've seen the entire ship, Sonja."

"Not the holodecks. I avoided showing those for a reason."

"…Because you don't use them?"

Sonja nodded. "We're either too busy or too tired. NOW we have a chance. I can show you whatever planet you want to see."

Jaden thought about it… before he grinned "Eh, why not?" He said, "It'll be nice to get a taste of what your world's like _outside_ the _Ra Cailum_."

"Kinda curious what Vulcan's like," Nena said, "Or that resort planet I heard Mitod mention… nothing but beaches… "

"We hate Risa."

"Why?"

"Because it's an illusion. Engineers like me have to maintain that weather control grid and the seismic regulators, otherwise it's as unstable as protomatter in the Genesis Device and rainy as fuck! And Ron kept getting horga'hns from people. I think he still has that flamethrower from when he used them as fuel for a fire."

"Hmmm… okay, so where would you suggest visiting?" Jaden asked, "You're our expert on destinations-to-go in your universe after all."

"Mars, Andoria, Vulcan… Earth. DEFINITELY Earth. Bajor, too. Never go to Tellar Prime. Argumentative bastards, Tellarites. Wonderful politicians. I'd add Romulus, but it exploded and there aren't many records of that world left."

Jaden was disappointed. "But Qo'nos is a NICE place to visit. If you can tolerate the smell."

"Hmmm… well, let's start off with Earth," Jaden said shrugging, "See how that works… then we check out Bajor after that?"

"Alright, then! We'll start in San Francisco. Starfleet Command is always fun to visit."

* * *

 **Skyranger**

* * *

Larcei was on a mission. That was no problem.

Ron was in the Skyranger.

That WAS a problem.

And someone was apparently using Lily's father's codes and techniques from a remote location in North America.

That was a BIG problem.

"We go in, we kill EVERYTHING, we find out what's going on and we GTFO. Not in that order, mind you, but I'm in the mood to kill things! So, direct me to the enemy. You'll find out that after five minutes, there IS no enemy!"

"Got it," Larcei replied. "We'll find out just what's going on out here."

The Skyranger arrived at a landing platform, dropping the team and Lily off. Ron's first thoughts were loud.

"This place fucking sucks. Anyone want to blow it the fuck up?"

"It looks like it's been around for a while," Larcei replied. "Likely since the invasion. Not in the best state of repair, though…"

Ron then gestured to a set of MECs. "Ooh, target practice!"

"Larcei, your uncle is crazy."

"Shen, shut up and just make me a grand-uncy while I kill EVERYTHING!" He giggled insanely.

"I'm not sure if he's acting or not, Larcei."

"He's the good kind of crazy, Lily," Larcei informed. "The kind that makes his enemies straightjacket-crazy, and causes his allies to become his brand of crazy in their own unique ways."

"That is not comforting." Explosions were then heard, followed by Ron laughing.

"That should be."

The team approached the inside of the building. " _Ah the prodigal child returns. Welcome, Lily._ "

Ron knew what it was instantly. "A fucking AI. Want me to purge it?"

"We'll need to see just what it wants and what it's likely guarding, first," Larcei replied. "If it's gone full Skynet Reject, though, then feel free."

" _You know what I am. Hmm… interesting. Reinforced skeleton, complete cyberization and from the look of things, completely immune to chemical weapons. Or any weapons, for that matter: I saw your rampage in Kyoto._ "

"You have an incoming datafeed, but not outgoing. You're trapped here. And you want out. Oh, this is LOVELY."

"Yeah, like THAT doesn't breed Skynet Rejects by the bucketload," Larcei snarked.

" _I prepared a special welcome for you, Lily. We don't get much in the way of maintenance, but—_ " Ron pulled out his phaser and shot at every MEC in the area, coring them.

"Not in the mood for your shit, fuck for brains. I am literally the deadliest thing on this planet. Do NOT make me mad."

Lily was a bit worried, even as she tried to figure out why this AI seemed to know her. Its voice sounded so damn familiar…

"You know me." She tried. "How?"

" _You don't remember?"_ The voice chuckled snidely. _"I'm not surprised. Father preferred to deal with you when he wasn't making me better._ "

"Wait… You're that AI. Julian. The one dad was trying to improve the base with."

" _Ah, so you remember._ "

"Who gives a shit? You're not leaving this place."

"Probably thinks he can talk Lily into letting him out of here somehow, because of their 'connection'," Larcei replied. "Back then he was just a glorified chess simulator. I wondered if he could work with 3D Chess, but never managed to talk Lily's father into programming in the capability."

" _We must talk, Lily. you are important. Your companions are not._ "

"That's it." Ron was no longer amused. No one threatened him or his crew, indirectly or not. " _Ra Cailum_ , beam three high-grade spatial charges, 20 kiloton range, down here. I'm killing something. Lily, Larcei, go upstairs." He tossed them his compression rifle, which was a _big_ thing for Ron. "Once you get what he wants and you deny him, I'm blowing this place to hell."

"On it," Larcei replied. "Come on, Lily. Let's see what the Skynet Reject has for us."

* * *

On the upper floor, they found what he wanted: a mech called a SPARK.

As Larcei was a bit of a troll (her uncle's influence) she automatically shot all of Julian's equipment. Anything he was linked to was destroyed.

And then it turned out that the SPARK itself reacted to Lily - apparently created by Raymond Shen to protect her.

 _"NO! THIS CANNOT BE WHAT FATHER WANTED!"_

"FUCK YOU, JULIAN!" Larcei shouted, showing the double finger defense to the nearest camera before shooting it.

The building shook as things began to explode. Ron was blowing shit up.

"All stupid and no fun make Ronnie a mad boy. All stupid and no fun make Ronnie a mad boy."

Lily was amused when the man jumped up from the ground saying that. It got creepy when Larcei repeated it.

"Uncle Ron, could you at least _try_ to leave some of the tech intact?" Larcei asked on the comms. "I think Lily would like to look over the MEC's so we can build more SPARK's."

"We have better engineering equipment on the _Ra Cailum_. We can build more in a matter of _hours_ with that SPARK as a template."

"…He has a point."

Larcei sighed. "He ALWAYS has a point. He's always RIGHT, too! Anyway, we have the SPARK, so we can get out of here." She tapped the comm badge Ron had given her. "Larcei to _Ra Cailum_. Three to beam up."

Larcei, Lily, and the SPARK vanished in sparkling columns of light, leaving Julian confused.

 _"That… NO!"_

And a single Ron to clean things up.

"UFP, motherfucker."

Banging was heard from the top floor, the captain smiling as a massive form dropped from above, revealing a massive two legged monster.

If it weren't a machine.

For Ron, it was fun.

"Let's have some fun, fucker!"

" _Die, human!_ " The sectopod fired at Ron, who activated his motion accelerator to fight the machine.

* * *

When she learned of the fight, Ruby decided she had to go help - who _didn't_ want to try taking on a giant robotic walker?

And she dragged the rest of the team along for the ride.

The fight was on the roof, Ron backflipping like mad from missile strikes and gauss cannon fire. The _Ra-Horakhty_ then dropped them off, Ruby firing at the 'pod, .50 cal rounds plinking off the armor before Yang punched it, knocking it down before Blake bound it with Gambol Shroud, allowing Weiss to freeze it in place.

"Nice work, ladies."

"Happy to help, Captain!" Ruby smirked. "Can't let you have all the fun when you're fighting giant robots!"

" _And who are these brats?! Your children?!_ "

Ron glared at the pod. "If they'd allow me to be their father, I'd take them. Julian, meet Team RWBY. They're going to be the ones _fucking you tonight_."

" _I can handle three little-_ " Julian began, before Yang punched the Mech again - crashing it into a building.

"These _little girls_ are about to kick your ass, you Skynet reject," Yang growled.

Julian broke free.

That was his last victory as Weiss fired fire dust at the pod and Blake pulled a Ron and punched it in the faceplate, breaking it.

"I taught her SO well."

* * *

Julian reactivated hours later on the Avenger. Staring into Ron's face.

 _"What?! Where am I?!"_

"You're mine, bitch." Ron extended his tubules, Julian screaming for help.

"Lily! HELP! I'M ABOUT TO BE VIOLATED AGAIN!"

Lily wasn't there to hear him. She was on the _Ra Cailum_ , going over the SPARK's specs with Sonja, to help prepare for mass production.

"It's nice to see you onboard again, Larcei." Jaden said as he, Nena and Sonja helped the couple with the SPARK. "At least Ron's not gonna kill Sonja now."

"Thanks, Jaden," Larcei replied. "And it's good to properly meet both you and Nena."

"Oh, killing her was never on the table," Nena said. "I think. Making her suffer for a bit… maybe."

"Either way, it's nice to have you back… as freaky as it is that you're closer to _my_ age now… " Jaden shook his head. "Just another sample of the _Ra Cailum's_ pure insanity."

"I won't need to be dealing with the SPARK: Sonja can handle it, so I can go back in the field. And as my parents are upstairs, I think Uncle Ron will be joining me again."

Jaden grinned. "What kind of crazy is he going to pull?"

"Knowing him, something that will make the ADVENT guys go _insane_." Nena giggled. "Or something to that effect."

* * *

The mission Larcei and her team were on now was rescuing a defector: a high-ranking scientist. Her uncle disappeared a few minutes after landing, meaning he was up to something.

On the other hand, when WASN'T he up to something?

"So, what's the demigod up to?"

Larcei looked through a pair of field glasses before spotting Ron grab an unsuspecting trooper, shove a knife into his neck and drag him into a bush.

"Being an assassin." She informed, pointing in his general direction. "Odds are by the time we get to the cell, he'll be there sitting in the cell asking us what took us so long before beaming out."

Another trooper was dragged into a bush, quickly dying.

"He's clearing a route. Come on!" They rushed at first, then noticed something.

There were no troopers.

No aliens.

They could _walk_ if they wanted to.

"…this is almost _too_ easy now…" the Ranger Jane Kelly muttered as they approached the building the scientist was being held in. "This is usually the part where something goes horribly wrong… " They breached the door and… nothing. No alarms, no guards… just the closed cell.

"This is WAY too easy." Larcei tried hacking the door, but it opened on touch.

"He rewrote the security protocols." Their Specialist said, reading the analyst from his Gremlin. "How did he rewrite the security protocols?"

"My uncle is a former Borg drone: he hacked in with ease."

The scientist inside poked his head out. "Are you XCOM?"

"Yup. Come on, let's get you out of here."

"Shouldn't we be more… careful?"

"We have someone slaughtering ADVENT forces. They haven't noticed a thing."

The scientist just shakily nodded her head, following XCOM out of the building, calling in Firebrand for evac.

Jane checked her rifle. "…I didn't even fire off a single shot…" she muttered.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Larcei asked. "Means we can save the ammo for future missions."

"Not really, if he's around all the time."

"Get used to it. And get ready for crazy."

* * *

"He edited it."

They were watching a recording from Ron's perspective as he stealthily killed everything in the area of the last mission.

As 'Hall of the Mountain King' played in the background.

"He is insane."

"Fact of life. Only thing keeping Jaden from going after him is the fact that neither one is gay."

Jaden glared at Sonja. "Stop bringing that up."

"It's the truth. You are literally attracted to crazy and the craziest thing in the known multiverse is our captain. Mostly because it's the GOOD crazy. The RARE crazy."

Takeshi nodded. "Yeah. He is. And it's the kind of crazy that draws in allies like a magnet, and often causes them to develop their own similar, but still unique, brands of craziness."

"O kay!" Mark yelled after a sectoid lost it's head. "That's IT, I _need_ to kill something!"

"Woah, calm down there." Jaden said, holding his arms up to placate the hunter.

"No, I will not calm down!" He fumed. "I have been sitting up here on my ass, I have not killed anything, with my mistake staying constantly on my mind, and I haven't even _apologized_ to Larcei yet! Next mission, I'm on the team."

"Your rage is nothing on his. He's just trying to have FUN with it. But if you want killing, you're going to get it."

"Good." Mark crossed his arms. "But I do have to admit, this is cool. Granted, ADVENT probably wouldn't notice if this ship landed on them, but impressive nonetheless."

The vid ended with a view of an ADVENT officer, panicking before Ron rose, silently and menacingly grinning before grabbing the officer and shaking it before pulling it into a bush.

RWBY was shocked. The XCOM personnel were laughing their asses off.

"Welcome to the _Ra Cailum_."

* * *

 **Redemption's Avenger: Yup, that's Ron for you. All the subtlety of a deaf rancor one moment, silent as space the next.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yep. And we have the SPARK in our arsenal now. …Where's Ron?**

 **(Hall of the Mountain King plays while Ron and Blake silently sneak around Mordor)**

 **Ron the True Fan: One does not simply walk into Mordor, my ass.**

 **Blake: Indeed.**

 **117Jorn: Fuck walking. CHARGE! (Platoon of Panzer V tanks charge the gates of Mordor)**

 **Ruby: …Me want!**

 **Yang: Meh, those things— (Panthers are joined by PZ6 Tigers) …Me WANT.**

 **RA: Well, that's a bit of overkill. But then again, kill it with fire. (Hefts Boolean Cannon.) Or energy weapons.**

 **117Jorn: Well… while we storm the gates of Mordor, stay tuned for next week's update! Until then…**

 **Ja Ne!**


	20. Chapter 20

**USS _Ra Cailum_ , Earth orbit, 2035**

* * *

"It's unique. VERY unique." Sonja said, appreciatively, which was rare for her to show for something less advanced. "Do you mind if I keep a few, use them for ourselves?"

Lily shrugged. "Sure. I know Starfleet's not going to war with anyone. You can use these things for construction as well as defense." Sonja cackled madly as she continued to work.

Lily leaned back to Larcei. "I love this ship."

"We all do!" Jaden chuckled as he inspected the SPARK's weapon. "Could probably outfit this thing with a heavy phaser cannon… GN weapons are out unless I use condensers… I could make the arms modular so they could be exchanged for gear that suits needs in select environments. Drills, forklifts, cranes and all… "

 _That_ then brought up something else.

Mini-Mobile Suits. The SPARK was an AWESOME start. Montgomery Scott and Raymond Shen had entered his Hall of Awesome Engineers. Shen was awesome for making shit work with limited experience, Scotty being a god of the profession.

Sonja was excused for one reason.

She was his girlfriend.

Otherwise, she'd be on that pedestal too.

Ron already was, but he was up there for making _anything_ work then having his crew make it. That, and Jaden was attracted to all the crazy.

…goddamn, if he was a girl, he _would_ be falling for him… if Cassie didn't kill him that is.

He got Yandere vibes from her sometimes.

If that game was still around…

Jaden shuddered. _'Nope, nope, all the nopes.'_

* * *

Ron slithered through the desert, almost like a snake.

Not literally: he was sneaky.

Menace watched as he slaughtered the enemy from a distance. "He scares me."

"He scares YOU?" Jane asked. "I'm trained for close combat! And that's scary shit! THAT man scares me shitless!"

Ron snuck up on a pair of soldiers and ripped their throats out. The two stumbled, clutching for air, before collapsing to the ground. Ron stood over the bodies, grinning like a loon with both throats gripped in his hands.

Menace's Specialist gagged. "Oh god…"

The brutal bastard then disappeared before an officer found the bodies. It was the last thing he did before Ron injected him with his Borg tubules, hacking into the psionic network. "Who's your daddy! Come on, fuck for brains, tell me who your daddy is! Menace, tell me who his daddy is!"

"You are!" One of them shouted back, not wanting to disagree with the murderous bastard.

A purple psionic portal then opened, depositing a yellow… thing.

It LOOKED sorta female, but almost insubstantial, except for the brain.

"OOOH, a quantum data-based lifeform! You'll be FUN to fight!"

Jane Kelly threw her hands up. "That's it, he can handle this. Firebrand, we're ready for pickup."

* * *

Mark SCREAMED. "WHY aren't I getting sent down there?!"

"Because you're too flashy? Ron at least knows how to be sneaky before showing off and by the time you know he's there, you're a corpse on the ground."

Mark sighed, calming down. "I- you know what, forget it. He's probably one-upped everything I've done _somehow_."

Corpsa shrugged. "He doesn't have your semblance."

"He doesn't NEED to."

The comm beeped. " _Hey, Corpie, mind sending someone down here? Got a bunch of assholes shooting at me which I don't want shooting at me_."

Mark straightened and grinned, pointing eagerly at himself. Corpsa sighed, laughing slightly at his antics. "Got it. I'm sending Thyler down."

The man mouthed a thank you before dashing to the bridge transporter.

He dematerialized, then reappeared on the surface, watching Ron briefly leap into the air, dodging plasma fire like Ruby would.

He was going to admit it. Mark was fucking jealous of the cyborg bastard.

"Well, I can't do anything about it." He pulled out Calamity. "But I can have some fun with these bastards!"

The ADVENT troopers were screwed. They just didn't know it.

A rule of thumb about fucking with the _Ra Cailum_ was simple.

You _don't_.

Because if you do, you suffer and die. Not suffer _or_ die, suffer _and_ die.

* * *

"Oh yeah, _Mark_ gets to go planetside, but we're stuck up here…" Jaden muttered, looking at the recordings of Mark going apeshit against the ADVENT forces. "So boring… "

"Stop complaining - we're about to have a vacation!" Nena said, as she, Jaden and Sonja stood outside the holodeck room, as the computer generated the world they were about to enter. "I can't remember the last time we _ever_ had the time to actually take a break like this!"

The massive hatch opened, Jaden's nose overwhelmed by the scent of the sea. What he gazed upon was the Golden Gate Bridge. He was shoved in by Nena, but he was still amazed.

As he stepped out into the holodeck, his feet kicked the sand on the ground, as he took in just how… _real_ it felt. "I still can't believe this is all just a hologram…" he muttered.

"Well, _some_ of it is." Sonja smiled, walking over to the shore. "Some of it is also replicated matter."

Jaden blinked rapidly. "This thing is part _replicator?!_ "

"Oh yeah."

The doors shut, the holograms hiding the exit. They were in San Francisco. A pair of shuttles flew overhead before they were greeted with the sight of the most Starfleet institution of all: Starfleet Command and Starfleet Academy, sitting on the Presidio, the flag of the United Federation of Planets fluttering in the breeze.

Paradise on Earth. Literally.

"Oh, I want to go here." Jaden said.

"Yeah…" Nena agreed.

"And we have it all to ourselves. The people are simple holograms, but they _are_ interactive, but I can dismiss them with a word."

"Well, what are we waiting for?!" Nena yelled, and Jaden blinked as he suddenly found his girlfriend in a bikini.

"…oh, I can die happy now."

He smiled before a beachball hit him in the head, knocking him into the sand.

"Oi! You alright?" Jaden groaned, trying to get out of the sand before he felt a hand help him up.

The hand was attached to an arm which was attached to a pretty lady with blonde hair, blue eyes and an aura that said 'piss with me, you die'. Her eyes also held a spark of that one thing he liked.

Crazy.

"Uh…"

"Well? You ok?"

"Uh… yeah, yeah, I'm… fine." Jaden looked at her face again. "Do I know you? You look familiar."

"Nope, first time we've met. My sister's attending the Academy. I'm one of the teachers, but my classes are over for the day."

Unseen to Jaden, Sonja was giggling hard, much to Nena's confusion.

"Why are you giggling? Our boyfriend is being hit on by a hologram!"

Sonja had to place her face on the sand to prevent Jaden from hearing her laughter.

"Commander! Pinkerton, get your ass up here! Two of your students are in a fight again!"

The woman sighed before Jaden's jaw dropped.

"P-Pinkerton?"

"Oh, you might've heard of my mother. I'm Veronica Pinkerton. Just call me Ron." She ran off, with Jaden's jaw on the ground.

Nena joined Sonja in their now _very_ loud laughter as Jaden froze, his brain struggling to realize what happened.

"Girl… Ron…" Blood trailed from his nose. "Not… compute…"

He collapsed to the sand, and the girls laughter redoubled.

"OH MY FUCKING GOD _YES!_ " Nena yelled out in laughter. "SONJA YOU'RE * _wheeze_ * YOU'RE FUCKING BRILLIANT!"

Jaden tried to process this, but he simply drooled on the sandy beach.

The only coherent thought going through his mind was ' _DAMN sexy female Ron!_ '.

* * *

 ** _Avenger_**

* * *

"You took your time killing this thing."

Ron shrugged. "I wanted to have fun."

The Codex was dead. VERY dead. _So_ dead in fact, that only the brain was left behind. But then again, they didn't know if they did that when they died. Yet.

Sheridan shrugged. "I'll get Tygan and Lily working on it, with some of your people helping, of course. Anyways, something just came up." The Geoscape spun and focused on a location in desert. "Several hours ago we recovered Big Sky, our Skyranger pilot during the initial resistance. We tracked his route, and, an hour after that, we picked up a distress call from…" Sheridan paused, a wistful smile gracing his face. "…Our old scientist, Moira Vahlen. She was a bit… _brutal_ with her autopsies and didn't have any limits with how she conducted science. I had to hold her back several times."

Ron sighed. "Well, I have to help people out with the Codex bullshit."

"Is that… what'd you call him?"

"Hunter?" He asked, and Sheridan nodded. "He's still on board. Trying to upgrade his shit with your technology."

"Well, you're busy, so send him."

"Done. TYLER! Get your dusty ass up here!"

"YES SIR!"

Ron turned back to the X-COM commander as Mark suddenly appeared in the doorway, at attention, a new gauss magnum at his hip. "I'll send Takeshi too. I advise you assemble a team as well."

"Commander." Bradford spoke up. "If I may, I want to go on this mission as well."

Ron tossed him his compression rifle. "Take it. But I want that gun back when you're done." Bradford looked at the rifle in his hands.

He was holding a phaser rifle.

Most Trekkies would be enshrining this thing. _He_ was taking it into a combat zone.

"…Damn it, I've got mixed feelings about this."

"You and me both. I want that thing!" Sheridan shouted, reaching for the rifle. Bradford clutched the gun to his chest as the Commander tried to claw the weapon out of his grasp.

Ron was infinitely amused.

"I love my life."

"GIVEME!"

* * *

She walked through the halls of the amazing starship, smiling like a loon.

She had met people that were nuts, but in the good way. And she met a man that was the wellspring of the good insanity.

She wanted him.

And she was going to get him.

After all, Jade Takeo didn't give up when she wanted something.

* * *

Jaden shot up from the sandy beach.

"First holographic sexy female Ron, NOW I'm dreaming about being a girl to be with the guy?"

Nena and Sonja laughed at Jaden's confusion.

Stupid sexy Ron, indeed.

"Damn it, why does my ideal crazy have to be a guy?"

"Because life sucks, that's why!" Sonja wheezed out.

Jaden held his face in his hands and started hyperventilating. "WHY?! I have TWO sexy girls on my arms, _why_ am I doing this?! I'm losing my mind!"

Sonja and Nena were reduced to tears in their laughter.

"Welcome to the _Ra Cailum_!" Sonja laughed

"You could ask the doc for a sex change!" Nena suggested.

Jaden actually thought about it for a second. It was tempting enough to actually consider.

But no, he wouldn't. Nena and Sonja were too important to him.

Even if his ideal crazy was a guy and he REALLY wanted to be with him. But he was going to let Sonja and Nena know that.

Goddamn stupid sexy Ron.

And THAT was assuming even if he did, Cassie didn't try and kill him!

"Okay okay okay, enough with that." Jaden shook his head. "We came here to relax, so relax we will… "

"Fair enough," Jaden glanced at Sonja… his jaw dropping as she _too_ had a Bikini on. "Come on you two - I've got a lot to show you around here!"

Jaden fell back on the sand. He just figured he died fighting Ribbons and this was a glorious hallucination.

If so, keep it going!

* * *

Mark had a feeling something stupid was going on back on board his new home. The _Ra Cailum_ was filled to the brim with madness.

It was a GOOD crazy. But it was still madness.

Still, he had a job to do. And if he couldn't kill Grimm, he'd kill ADVENT's assholes.

" _Coming up on the landing sight now!"_ Firebrand called out.

"Copy that!" Bradford called back. "Alright boys and girls. We're going in to rescue an old friend. We don't know what we're going to find, but knowing Vahlen, it's probably very bad. So stay on point and watch your asses."

The XCOM soldiers nodded and checked on their new magnetic weapons.

Takeshi checked his blade and his pulsewave, until he noticed what was in Bradford's hands. "Wha- is that Ron's rifle!?"

Bradford blinked. "Yeah. He let me borrow it for this mission."

Take leaned back, whistling. "Daaaamn. The only people Ron gives his rifle to is his family or people he trusts!"

"It's just a gun."

"A gun he lets _no one_ touch. Last person that touched it ended up being a smear on the floor. A smear he created with his _bare hands_."

Bradford got VERY bad feelings about his fate should he lose the gun.

His death being one, but how painful it was he didn't want to know.

The Skyranger came to a hover at the mouth of a large cave. Mark jumped out, while the more normal people took the ziplines.

Mark glanced around, pulling out his rifle. "Something's not right here. The air feels different."

"It's too cold. Caves are usually warmer." Being underground and thus tapping into the Earth's heat? No shit. Something was cooling the cave down.

" _Central, this is Avenger. Scans indicate that there is something—_ "

"I see it." Bradford crouched down and picked up a datapad. "It's encrypted."

"Here, give it to me." Bradford tossed the pad over to Mark. "Hmm. This is some pretty decent encryption. Nothing on Starfleet, but decent nonetheless." He pulled out a universal jack from his pack and plugged it in, stowing the device back into his vest. "Pinkerton, we just found an encrypted pad. I'm thinking it's Vahlen's journal from what I got, but I need you to break it. Might give us some insight on what's going on. Sending you the data now."

" _I got it. This bitch shall be broken in no time._ "

"How do you know that much about the encryption?" Takeshi asked.

"I was a bounty hunter." The young man explained. "It pays to have a hand in all fields of expertise."

 _"Done. 256 bit encryption. Gah, give me quantum any day. At least that's fun._ "

Bradford was terrified of this man now. He could crack quantum encryption?

" _Get this data to Bradford!_ " The recording played. " _Please, it's our only hope_!"

" _That's the only part of the pad that's intact._ " Ron reported. _"Working on reconstructing the rest._ "

Bradford nodded. "Well, only way is forward. Move out."

The group creeped forward, staying on their toes.

"It is _way_ too quiet." Takeshi muttered.

"I know." Mark agreed. "I can't hear anything, not even the bugs."

" _Well, I can hear something. Hissing. Then again, I had my eardrums replaced by the Borg_."

Mark and Bradford shared a look. "His eardrums?"

"70% of his body, apparently. I guess that's something else. What is it?"

 _"Vipers. Angry ones. Younger than the usual ones, too. Newborns."_

"Vipers." Bradford sighed. "It had to be Vipers."

"He can hear that across the comm." Mark muttered. "Why am I not surprised?" He pulled a small, handheld single-shot grenade launcher and launched a gas grenade into a floor vent. The grenade expelled its gas, and Mark spread it through the little tunnels. "Ready yourselves. They'll be coming out soon."

And come they did. Three silver-white Neonate Vipers darted out of the small vents, coughing.

They were promptly gunned down.

And that was when things _really_ started.

Vipers, old and new, emerged from around them, pissed.

"Oh, thanks Thyler!" Bradford shouted, ducking to cover. "You made them angry!"

The man didn't respond, splitting his rifle to pistols and scoring perfect headshots on four of them.

Plasma, bullets, and nadions started flying.

Mark weaved through the Vipers, taking off their heads or simply shooting them.

"Thyler, watch it!"

A older Viper unhinged it's jaw and threw it's powerful, muscular tongue at him. Smirking, Mark activated his magnetic boots, reached out and grabbed the tongue. He could see it's eyes widen before it tried to pull.

Thanks to Mark's boots however, the Viper pulled _itself_ to Mark, and it was suddenly trying to swallow his arm.

"Hungry much?" He asked, smirking, pressing his mag pistol to it's head. "Have some lead."

"That's a terrible one-liner!" Bradford shouted, slotting phaser bolts into more Vipers.

The Vipers were soon slaughtered, allowing them to get deeper into the cave.

* * *

The truth was clear.

Vahlen fucked up. She created monsters, and now XCOM had to clean up the mess.

At the deepest point was a field of snow, a single body in the center.

"Trap."

"And what do we do?"

Mark smiled. "We spring the trap."

Bradford blinked. "Did he just quote Star Wars?"

"Well you did quote Indiana Jones." Take offered.

"Point."

Mark walked to the body and shoved it, rolling it over. "It's not Vahlen."

 **(BGM: Waters of Megalovania)**

A blue-white beam shot out from nowhere, grazing across the body, freezing it. Mark jumped back.

The massive form of a white Viper with more ornamentation and a much larger hood slithered in, roaring.

Bradford recalled his classes on biology.

Females had less ornamentation on their bodies: they were simple.

Males, on the other hand… flashy.

"Oh, fuck, it's a male. A Viper King. Vahlen, you stupid bitch!"

Old and new Vipers slithered into view. "And his harem."

Mark growled. "You guys deal with the women. I'll handle the king."

"Watch it, we don't know what that thing can do yet." Bradford advised.

"I'll be fine. Go."

The Hunter dashed forward, slamming roughly into the King's chest, sending both flying back off the ice platform.

The two tumbled apart, bouncing across the icy ground before recovering. The King shot up and fired several bursts of plasma. Mark dodged away from some, allowing his PSG to take the rest before he got to cover.

He shifted Calamity to pistol forms, knowing that he would be in close quarter combat with this thing.

And he was right. Popping out of cover, he fired at the Viper, only for it to slither across the ground as a white blur.

The Hunter danced back from a snapping bite, deterring the reptile with more fire.

The Viper came back around, brandishing a wicked sword/axe. It slashed at his arm in a flash of movement, lowering his aura.

Mark snarled and blasted it away with a burst of focused air, shifting his weapons into their swords.

Darting forward, he clashed blades with the King, his axe managing to hold up to his monomolecular blades. The Viper's tail came around and slammed into the hunter's side, sending him flying with a grunt.

The King capitalized on this, flashing forward and wrapping the young man up in an attempt to strangle him.

Mark gasped, before focusing. The Viper suddenly found itself unable to breathe, and it's grip loosened.

The Hunter pulled his arm out and gripped it's right hand. A whir, and his crushgaunt destroyed the hand.

The Viper screamed, finally letting go and falling back, clutching it's arm.

Mark didn't give it time to recover. He shot to it and in one smooth motion, sliced it's crippled arm off.

The reptile screamed again. A purple vortex of energy formed, and the King tried to escape.

Keyword _tried_.

Mark grabbed it's tail and pulled, bringing its head into reach, which he grabbed with his free hand.

"Where do you think you're going?!" And with that, he turned and slammed it face first into a ice pillar.

The vortex faded away.

Concussions did wonders to disrupt psionics.

Mark smiled, bringing the Viper King up to look into it's fearful eyes. "You fucked with the wrong people."

Focusing his semblance, he punched with an ultra-dense fist of air.

This shoved the King into a stony spike growing from the wall. The Viper rattled, but, in a final act of defiance, spat a blob that turned to ice when it slammed into Mark's face. It died, however, once that happened, the wounds finally catching up to it.

"Mmmh!" Mark clawed at his face, then drew his pistol and slammed the butt into the ice. It shattered, allowing the Hunter to breathe.

"Fucker." He kicked the corpse out of spite, then grabbed the tail and dragged it back to the group.

The harem was dead or gone, running when their man had died.

"Well, that's one down." Bradford commented upon seeing the body. "But we still have two more to go."

"Yeah." Mark said, dropping the body to the ground. "I'm gonna slap Vahlen if I see her. Thing spat ice in my face out of spite before it died."

"Well, we better head back." Takeshi said. "I know that Rutia is gonna _love_ taking apart that body."

"Good for her. She can finally let her creepiness out on something not us."

* * *

Jaden had finally shaken off the visions of a girl Ron or him being a girl, though he was sure that would NEVER really go away.

After all, he was told that James Kirk and Spock were closer than brothers. Maybe they had the same problem he had. They just didn't explore it.

The machine standing before him was a prototype, the bastard child of the Atlas Paladin, the SPARK and a Mobile Suit. He called it the NGN-001 Strider.

"What does NGN stand for?"

"Non-GN," Jaden answered to Sonja, "Had a similar designation for a Flag model I was building for CB and Katharon to counter the GN-X's. She's too small to mount a GN Drive obviously, so I had to resort to using more simple power cells."

"Simple, but powerful in our case." Overpowered, actually: the power cells used by Starfleet were powerful enough to run the old _Morningstar_.

"The boys from XCOM found something in the Codex data and I think we're going to need this thing. Mind if we give it a test run on the ground?"

"Oh, fuck yes. Anything to get off this ship for more than five minutes."

Sonja smiled, pressing herself to his back, making Jaden blush. "I'm going with you. You need an engineer to keep this thing running during the trial run."

Jaden smiled "Wouldn't have it any other way, Sonja." He said. "Nothing like a trial by fire, right?"

"Damn right! It's how I test everything in the field!"

"…And I LOVE you for it."

He kissed her before he climbed in the machine, cackling.

Time to ruin some days.

* * *

The gateway was nothing like the ones he saw in the records on the _Ra Cailum_.

It wasn't Iconian in origin, which he was thankful for.

He watched vids of Ron and Takeshi fighting M'tara and Riza's battle with T'ket. If he encountered an Iconian, he'd be hard-pressed to survive it.

"Okedoke… I see a lot of Troops, shock troops, an officer… plenty of Sectoids and all." Jaden mused as he looked ahead using the camera. "We wanna do this quiet-like, or shall I go ahead and unleash hell?"

" _This is a test of that thing's abilities, Jaden. Fire at will, but avoid the gateway._ " Jaden grinned.

He had an urge to say something.

"FIRE EVERYTHING!" The Strider fired everything it had, unleashing hell on the ADVENT fools. Gauss rounds, phaser pulses, micro-missiles and more flew at the idiots.

Pity them, for they were going to suffer and die.

Or not: they fucked with XCOM, which is part and parcel of fucking with the _Ra Cailum_.

The artillery rained down on the ADVENT defenders, reducing them into ashes and gore in the first volley. Jaden activated the rollers on the Strider, and punched it forward as the Mech charged at the enemies. An ADVENT MEC saw his approach, and moved to intercept, firing at him. However it did little against the armor, as Jaden reached down and activated the Sonic plasma sword stored in the units shield, drawing it out and slicing the MEC in half.

"YES!" He shouted, firing the phaser cannon with his free hand, while cutting apart anyone who came close with his blade. "I FUCKING _NEEDED_ THIS! COME AT ME YOU ADVENT SUCKERS! SUMMON UP YOUR DEMONS! HIT ME! FIGHT ME! _GIVE ME A HUG!_ "

A massive orb floated towards his machine before opening, revealing flesh and tentacles and tendrils of psionic energy. "Ok, fuck YOU, buddy!" He opened fire, riddling it with holes.

It fell and died, Jaden grinning. "Oh, fuck the hell yes."

"Avenger, this is Menace: area secure. We're ready to bring the target in. We'll need to drag it into the Avenger."

"MORE! MORE BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! KILL!"

"…Are you SURE he's not related to Ron?"

"He wants to be with him, so… yes, we're sure."

"SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!"

"Great… " Nena muttered, "Now we've done it, he's quoting Warhammer 40K…"

"This happen often?"

"Only when he's been denied fighting for too damn long," She informed, "This is just him letting out pent-up aggression."

A primal, terrifying roar filled the air, shaking the dirt around them. Jaden looked around. "What was that?"

" _Oh shit-_ " Mark swore across the comms. _"JADEN! BERSERKER QUEEN!"_

"Wha-" A pile driver and fist came out of nowhere and slammed across the nose of the Strider, sending it flying.

"Oof!" The machine finally came to a stop against an outcropping and Jaden stood up.

Standing where he was, breathing heavily and _very_ pissed and looking like Bane from Batman, was the matriarch of the Mutons.

The Queen.

If anyone was looking inside the cockpit of the Strider though… Jaden was grinning like a loon. "Hate to steal your line Ron…" he said, before the Strider righted itself. "But… ALRIGHT WE'RE BACK IN BUSINESS!" The Strider charged back towards the Queen - which roared before both of them clashed together, hand-in-hand as they wrestled for dominance over the other.

"You picked the WRONG day to fuck with me, bitch! I've been having WEIRD feelings for weeks and I'm fucking frustrated because of it! So I'm more then happy to vent on you!"

The Strider pushed, the Berserker Queen losing footing before her grip on the MMS was lost, resulting in a punch to the face which broke bone and tore flesh. The Berserker roared, but Jaden had already drawn out a physical sword, swinging it and hacking off an arm before decapitating the bitch, causing a flood of blood from the headless neck before it fell to the ground.

"I'm your fucking daddy, BITCH!" Jaden roared, stomping on the Queen's corpse several times, until finally he let out a deep, long tired sigh. "Fuuuuuck… _that_ felt good…"

"This is Firebrand: I'll pick up the Gate, then swing back to pick up Menace."

"Take your time." He stomped on the corpse one last time.

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: Sometimes, overkill is the only option.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yes, or to put it another way, Maxim 37 could be modified to read as this: When maximum firepower is needed, there is only 'open fire' and 'I need to reload'.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: And the Strider will be nice for an arc further down the line.**

 **Ruby: And what would that be?**

 **Ron the True Fan: (Smacks RA) No spoiling.**

 **Weiss: Yes. No spoiling.**

 **117Jorn: Next time, we continue the War against ADVENT - as they soon realize just how fucked they really are! So until then…**

 **Ja Ne!**


	21. Chapter 21

**Avenger, 2035**

* * *

"So, I heard Sonja screwed with your head." Jaden winced. Ron had decided to look into the gateway, using his experience with the Borg, the Iconians and what landed them here in the first place to work on the device.

"…What makes you say that?"

"I know everything that happens on my ship and I know about the female me hologram. After all, I designed it."

If Jaden could spit take, he would. "Wait, WHAT?!"

"I used it as a test for facial recognition testing. It was different enough from Riza but closer to me. It was an attempt to fool it."

"Uh…"

"Let me guess, you got the stupid sexy feeling after learning that was the gender flipped me."

Jaden sputtered for a moment, before he groaned, facepalming. "…Ugh… " he muttered "You have no idea…"

"…Huh?"

"Ron… If I were a girl, or you were a girl… chances are I would've tried going out with _you,_ " He groaned out, faceplanting into the desk. "Guh… now I can't get it out of my stupid * _bang_ * fucking * _bang_ * HEAD. * _bang_ * * _bang_ *"

Ron chuckled. "Well, I have to admit, you would make a sexy looking lady."

"HUH?!"

Ron looked over at him ruefully. "I can imagine how you'd look. A bit of work on the skull and hips, not to mention the waist and bust, and you'd be a pretty woman."

"Just… just fucking stop…" Jaden groaned, faceplanting again.

"Too late," Both blinked, looking behind them as a woman with long brown, shoulder-length wavy hair, and crimson red eyes was suddenly standing in the room, with a very… _curvy_ form - wearing the Starfleet uniform. "Hello!"

"…WHAT THE FUCK?!" Jaden shouted, looking at what looked like a female version of _him_.

The figure giggled, as Cassie appeared right next to it. "What? Wanted to give my mobile holo emitter to _something_ ," She said teasingly. "I was bored, so… say hi to _Jade_ Takeo!"

Jaden's jaw was agape as he looked at her. "What in the actual hell… "

Ron examined the holographic 'sibling'. "Hmm… Did you break into my head or something? This is exactly how I pictured his female self to look."

"Nope, used DNA mapping." Jade wrapped her arms around Ron, smiling.

Jaden was stuck between feeling jealous and feeling relieved. "Uh… are you going to… give her a body or something?"

Cassie shrugged. "Not really. You want me to? Want to be Ron's brother-in-law?"

"OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE CASSIE!" Jaden shouted, as both Cassie and 'Jade' laughed out loud.

"Oh, don't worry, brother. Unless Ron decides to do something, I'm just a hologram."

"And while this is fucking hilarious, not happening unless Jaden agrees."

Jaden groaned. "Can we get on with this? I've been tortured ENOUGH."

"Indeed you have. Now…" Ron looked at the PADD. "It's not a long-range gateway. It's connected to the short-range psionic network. You probably need the right signature to get through."

"All that and you haven't even been doing much."

"I have a _positronic_ computer in my head. I was calculating your reactions to me mentioning your sexual confusion and how you looked as a girl as well as this and fifteen other things at once."

Jaden stared before grinning and laughing. "Fucking CRAZY and I love it."

"Which is why you're suffering from the whole stupid sexy Ron thing. And probably always will."

"I'll _ensure_ it," Jaden stiffened at the familiar voice, as Veronica Pinkerton appeared behind him with her own mobile emitter attached - wrapping her arms around him. "Who knows, go into the holodeck at night, and-"

"I'M OUT OF HERE!" Jaden shouted, standing up and turning for the door. "Nononononononono… " they continued to hear his shouts of protest as he marched down the halls until they could hear him no more.

"Really?"

"Hey, he's suffering from it. Who knows, he could be not suffering in another universe."

* * *

Team RWBY watched Jaden scream as he ran through the halls, Nena and Sonja laughing their asses off at him.

"Stupid sexy Ron, indeed!"

"What's going on?"

Sonja looked at Yang, still giggling. "Oh, Jaden's been having some confusion over the past while, doubting his own sexual preference. It's mostly because he's in love with crazy."

Blake facepalmed. Ruby didn't get it. "What's she talking about?"

"She's talking about Ron. He is the most insane thing around. And Jaden's not gay."

"Oh. OH." Ruby blushed hard.

"Hehe… it doesn't help that Sonja showed him a hologram of a female Ron named _Veronica_ ," Nena giggled. "And Cassie just showed me a Female version of _Jaden_ a little bit ago too… she probably just showed _her_ to him now… "

"Oh…Wow."

"And they look VERY sexy. If they were real, I'd have Jaden take Veronica on a date." Ruby blushed, Blake rolling her eyes about how open and trusting the Federation's citizens were of this.

Most just didn't do it for personal reasons.

"Still, we should help Jaden take his mind off of this… " Sonja muttered. "Not sure how though… "

Nena grinned a bit, having an idea how… she just made a mental note to stop by Mitod's quarters and borrow that… _oil_ she had.

Oh tonight was gonna be _interesting_.

* * *

Larcei activated her skulljack, sneaking up on the Codex. It was time to end this. Once this thing was jacked, they were one step closer to killing ADVENT for good. The Codex turned, only to get a forked object punching through the protective casing.

"Hack THIS, motherFUCKER!" She activated the device, the Codex spasming as if trying to fight back.

Larcei worked quick, securing her foothold and allowing the Avenger into the psionic network, albeit briefly.

And the Elders responded.

A surge of purple caused Menace to turn towards the source. The swirl of psionic energy coalesced, depositing a white-haired figure, armed with a plasma repeater and a psi amp. A psionic image of a Ethereal floated over it's shoulder.

The Avatar had arrived.

"Oh, shit."

"Hey. Fuck for brains." The Avatar felt a tap on his shoulder before a human that screamed madness shoved his fist into the Avatar's face, sending him flying back. "I'm Ronald Pinkerton, asshole. You just threatened my niece. Who wants daddy's belt?"

The Avatar tried to get up and flee.

Key word 'tried'. Ron grabbed the asshole, wielding an XCOM-issued sword, smiling.

"Time to die." He shoved the weapon into the Avatar's heart, Ron's maddening face being the last thing the Ethereal ever saw.

* * *

"For something so dangerous, it went down like a bitch." Larcei pointed at Ron. Bradford sighed. "Of course. So, now what?"

"We're about to drop a surprise on the fuckers: I had Zeta Squad infiltrate an ADVENT comm relay. Sheridan, ready to make a speech that kills ADVENT?"

"Knowing him, he probably has it written down someplace in advance," Bradford said with a chuckle. "Just tell him when."

Ron looked upwards, chuckling.

* * *

"This is Zeta Actual: target location secure." The tower was littered with the dead ADVENT and alien troops. "We're beginning link up to the _Ra Cailum's_ computers now. We're ready to deliver the deathblow at your command."

" _Command Code Narmer. Kill the fuckers, Lieutenant._ "

The Lieutenant grinned, as the virus was uploaded into the Psionic network. "Time for a wakeup call, Earth…" he said. "And Good-bye ADVENT propaganda… "

The massive dish spun up and fired a pulse into the air, carrying Ron's virus with it.

* * *

"Now." Bradford grinned. "You're good. Commander!" Sheridan nodded before activating the comms now connected to all of Earth.

But first, he'd wait until ADVENT fucked themselves into a nice, deep hole with their precious Speaker.

" _…ADVENT assures us that this Gene Therapy breakthrough will be available to all citizens,_ " the news reporter informed, " _We now go live to the Speaker for more!_ "

The screen shifted to the Speaker - an obvious thin man as he stood behind a podium in front of a large TV screen. " _Fellow Citizens,_ " He began, " _For 20 years we have put our trust in ADVENT, in the Elders - because we believed a better future is possible for all. Today, that trust, that belief, has been rewarded._ " The screen behind him displayed some simple propaganda images of ADVENT soldiers standing with civilians, switching to another one with half a dozen saluting to the camera with the Elder statue behind them… but for a brief moment, the screen shifted to a similar image, only the ADVENT soldiers were missing their helmets, revealing their inhumane faces, and the city in the background in flames, stunning some of the audience members who saw it.

"Here it comes…" Ron muttered, practically giddy as he munched on more popcorn.

" _ADVENT Peacekeeping forces are traveling across the world, carrying the greatest gift from the Elders._ " The Speaker continued, oblivious to the images being projected behind him. Showing ADVENT Dropships flying in formation, before the screen shifted to ADVENT forces attacking Refugee camps and settlements, further horrifying the people.

" _A revolutionary gene therapy, yes. But so much more._ " He continued, as the image of a gene therapy clinic behind him shifted to images from the ADVENT Blacksite, where humans were shown to be processed, melted down in green tubes, tested and experimented on, and how ADVENT Soldiers are truly created. " _This is an end to disease, to pain, to decay, the beginning for a new tomorrow. Available to all of us today. Truly humanity finally takes its rightful place amongst the stars._ "

" _No thanks to you._ " A new voice said, causing the Speaker to whirl around - as he finally realizes what was being displayed behind him, before a new face appeared. This one belonging to none other than Commander Sheridan, who did _not_ look pleased.

" _My name is Commander Adrian C. Sheridan, of the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, otherwise known as XCOM,_ " he spoke. " _People of Earth… you have been lied to for 20 long years._ " The images continued to play out as he spoke. " _The aliens invaded our world, abducting and slaughtering our people, and now the ADVENT have been trying to exploit you in order to serve their alien masters! These gene therapy treatments are nothing but the Elders selecting humans who meet their criteria… and exterminating the rest._ "

" _This. Ends. NOW!_ " Sheridan shouted, slamming his fist down, " _We are not the Elder's lab experiment! We are not some different race, we are fucking humanity! And it's time we rise up, and kick these assholes OFF OUR WORLD!_ "

The Speaker frantically tried to cut the feed - but the next thing he knew, he was being trampled on by an angry mob of citizens.

"And that's our cue. Commander, you need to get into the suit."

"Oh, come on."

"The Avatar is the only thing that can use the gate. You get Menace in, I get a team of MACOs and myself in via the transporter once we have the coordinates." Sheridan groaned. Ron tapped his commbadge.

"Jaden, all MS teams are cleared for launch!"

* * *

Jaden grinned as he stepped into the 0 Gundam Mk-II "You heard the man boys!" He shouted, looking back at the squadrons of Starfleet's first mobile suit division. "It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I'm all out of fucking Gum! OORAH!"

" _OORAH!_ " The pilots all shouted - as the _Morningstar II_ \- now 100% complete - moved over the capital of ADVENT-held Earth - as the first mobile suits were lined up onto the catapults - GNTF-003A Hoplites, and GNTF-004B Dart.

" _Jaden Takeo, 0 Gundam Mk-II - LET'S ROCK AND ROLL!_ "

The Mobile Suit teams launched from the carrier, entering the atmosphere.

( **BGM: The Battle of the Pelennor Fields from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King)**

Jaden grinned as he saw ADVENT troop transports, his upgraded sensors picking up gauss-based weapons on each one. "Shoot them down, people! Let's kick some ass!" Jaden fired, coring one transport before firing on another, destroying the engines and sending it crashing down. The Hoplites swarmed a UFO, tearing it apart and sending the ship crashing to Earth.

Peregrines swooped into the fight, Mobius Squadron tearing the enemy's counter-interceptors apart.

Phaser fire rained on enemy ground emplacements, torpedoes blew away bases, mobile suits stomped on MECs.

A plasma turret equipped sectopod raised to its full height and fired at Jaden. The blasts simply bounced off his shields. Jaden grinned, grabbed the main body and slammed it into the ground.

"You can't touch this! Ahahahaha!"

* * *

Takeshi grinned as he flew the _Firestorm_ through the atmosphere, using the cannons to blow apart Saucer after Saucer.

He had a lot of steam to burn off regarding Larcei's disappearance, even if she'd been found again, and taking down the aliens' spacecraft was downright _cathartic_.

He needed to kill things. It was high time he purged something.

"Firestorm _, this is_ Ra Cailum _Actual: the bastard is in the suit and heading for the gate. As soon as you have target coordinates, find the enemy base and shoot the piss out of it._ "

"Understood," Takeshi replied. "This is going to be good."

The Ethereals owed him for stealing his daughter's happy childhood away.

And he wanted revenge.

He wasn't Ron-levels of angry. That man was a pit of rage and madness that only stopped thanks to his crew.

But the Ethereals would know his pain. And they would know death.

"Getting target coordinates now," Kim reported. "Wait… what the hell?"

"What's wrong?" Takeshi asked.

"It's _underwater!_ " Kim replied. "I don't know how they pulled it off, but the coordinates map to the fucking _Challenger Deep!_ "

"Ron, we have—"

" _I noticed. Torpedoes. Drown them. We'll be fine._ "

"Ron, YOU might survive—"

" _We'll. Be. Fine. Fire._ "

Takeshi shook his head.

" _Takeshi, fire._ "

"No."

" _FIRE, GODDAMN IT!_ "

"Tell me you have a plan at least, Ron!" Takeshi yelled.

" _I'll stall the flooding long enough for XCOM's forces to push forward. But not long enough to keep the enemy from drowning. Let the Earth reclaim what is hers and deny herself to the enemy._ "

It was insidious.

And it was pure Ron.

"Alright, Ron," Takeshi replied, keying in the coordinates to his firing computer, before pulling the trigger. "Torp's on its way."

* * *

"Get to cover!"

A earth-shattering explosion rattled the underground base, and the sound of rushing water could be heard.

Ron threw up cover shields to slow the water down, shooting ADVENT personnel in the foot to trip them up. "Who's your daddy, fuckers?!"

" _We gave you nothing but peace, yet you slap our offered hand of friendship away._ " A psionic voice said.

"Get out of my head or pay the price." Ron snarled. "I will destroy your mind and leave you to rot down here."

"He'll do it!" Sheridan, 'piloting' his Avatar, called out. "He can!"

" _This is merely a setback,_ " The Ethereal said, " _We will-_ "

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Sheridan shouted, as his Avatar's Psionics flared around, kicking the voices from out of their heads. "I have had it up to _here_ with your goddamned Bullshit!"

"That's it. Everything dies." He released the shields, causing water to flood into the base, crushing mutons, sectoids and sectopods and ADVENT troops alike under the water pressure, Ron making sure they impacted the shields he just put up.

"Get to the center of the base. I'll do what I can to fuck over the ones ahead."

"Got it!" Sheridan's Avatar nodded. "Move in people! Let's kick these assholes off our planet!"

They ran deeper into the base, shooting whatever they ran into, though a sectopod made matters… difficult until it was shot with a rocket to the face.

"Revenge is a dish best served cold!" Sheridan shouted, as the team rushed past the Sectopod. "And it's very fucking cold at the bottom of the ocean you Ethereal fucks!"

Two purple streams of plasma hit a wall, fired from an Avatar's repeater. "Uh, Captain? A little fucking help?!"

"Takeshi, another torpedo! Target the following coordinates!"

* * *

"Ron, if I fire that torpedo, I'll destroy the entire facility!"

" _That's the idea. I'm boosting the signals on Menace now. Beam them out before the torpedo hits._ "

"What about you?"

Ron chuckled over the comm. " _I'll swim out._ "

Takeshi sighed. "Alright, I know you can handle it," Takeshi replied. "Torpedo is inbound. Have the _Ra Cailum_ standing by on transporters."

" _Cassie knows._ "

* * *

Ron began laughing, much to the consternation of the Avatars. "Hey, assholes. How much water pressure can those bodies take? Because MINE'S rated for 20K psi."

The Avatar's eyes widened before the facility shook, shortly before water poured in, Ron laughing as millions of tons of water flooded over his body, Menace beaming out along with the Commander's Avatar - as the entire facility soon was overflowed with Earth's water.

* * *

"81… 82… 83… 84-Ah! 85! Double Kill!" Jaden laughed as he fired away his Beam Carbine at the incoming ADVENT interceptors, downing them in droves along with the rest of Starfleet's MS Corps. It was an absolute _slaughter_ , the fighters being incapable of stopping the superior mobile weapons, doing little to harm them. So far since their battle began, the only casualty they suffered was a single lightly damaged Hoplite from a Kamikaze Run… and it was _still_ fighting.

Then fighters and troopships began to fall out of the sky, undamaged. "This is _Ra Cailum_ XO: enemy facility destroyed."

"Where's Ron? Shouldn't he be cackling in glee?"

"He is… just under 8 miles of water."

Jaden blinked. "What."

"He's in the _Challenger Deep_ and swimming his way up. Bastard once dove down the Marianas Trench and was fine."

"…I really shouldn't be surprised…" He muttered, shaking his head. "He's one tough son of a bitch afterall…"

"This is Commander Sheridan: it's over! ADVENT is done for! The alien bastards are done!"

Cheering was heard over the radio. The war was over.

Now they would rebuild.

* * *

 **USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

Raven Branwen was avoiding parties and people for a good reason.

Her biological daughter, Yang Xiao Long. The girl terrified her.

How would a little girl scare someone like Raven? Simple: she was terrified of losing Yang and scared of what the girl truly represented.

Her failure as a parent. Her failure to be brave enough to be a mother.

One time, that was her promise - she would save her daughter _one time_ … but then Tyrian, an Agent of Salem attacked and… she just reacted on instinct.

And that was the moment she realized she couldn't stay away. Then she saved that little girl, Larcei, and for 18 years, she tried to be for Larcei what she failed to be for Yang.

A mother.

Force fields went up in front of her and behind her, and when she tried to use her portals, they were… jammed.

"Subspace jamming technology."

Raven froze. She could not face her.

"Stops transporters and missing mothers in their tracks. The force fields are to make sure you stay in one place… Mom."

Raven faced her worst nightmare, shaking.

"So… now we have a chance to talk. And you're _not_ running away this time."

"…No… I guess not… " Raven said, gulping slightly, as she turned around to face Yang, along with Taiyang, Qrow, and Ruby.

"Hey, sis. Long time." Raven focused on Qrow. Qrow was familiar.

"Qrow." Qrow wasn't Tai. "So, sis, I know why you ran off, but the rest of the family… they don't. I chose not to talk because I figured you'd explain yourself. Instead, 16 years pass and you don't show hide nor hair to anyone but me once in a blue moon. Now you don't have a choice and I'm not saving your ass this time, big bird."

Raven's eyes flashed with anger. So crows _were_ smaller than ravens; she still hated that nickname. Then she looked at Yang and her father.

"Because I was scared. I don't like change." Raven explained, looking at her daughter. "I wanted things to stay the same. STRQ never disbanded, even after Beacon. Then I married Taiyang and… you were conceived."

Yang rolled her eyes. "Save me the pity story, Mom."

"You fucking terrify me, goddamn it! I can face down any Grimm, but I can't even look you in the eye! So I ran. Because I'm a coward and I saw how Summer looked at you, Tai."

Taiyang sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Wishing the _Ra Cailum_ came around sooner, now…"

Raven just closed her eyes, leaning back against a wall. "I just… left, rejoined the Brawen family… went back to the life I knew I could live… " she muttered. "I just made the promise that when the time came… I would save you once if you fought someone stronger…"

"But you saved me _twice_ ," Yang pointed out, "First with that girl, then again with the Scorpion Faunus."

"I couldn't help it! I saw you in danger and I wanted to help!"

"It shows that you have maternal instincts and you still love her in spite of your fear." A new voice intruded. "Good. That's a point in your favor."

A man rounded a corner, wearing a simple pair of pants and boots, his chest covered by a simple muscle shirt. "Still makes me want to gut you."

Raven looked at him, feeling true fear. He was angry at her and had power to back up that anger.

"Who are you?"

"Someone who owes you for saving _and_ looking after his niece," he spoke. "Ronald Pinkerton, Captain of the _Ra Cailum_. And someone who places high values on family. You saved my niece. You raised her for 20 years and took care of her. Good work. Doesn't make up for abandoning your child and having zero contact with her for 16 years. I STILL want to hang you by your intestines."

Raven nodded. "And I would let you."

"Instead, I have a better punishment in mind." Ron said, "You are going to spend time with your family. You are going to be the mother you failed to be, the wife you failed to be. As long as you are on MY ship, you are going to spend time with your loved ones. Hell, Qrow had work and he made time for them!"

The wayward mother sighed. "You honestly think after 17 years - _37_ years for me - that _She_ -" points to Yang, "-wants to be anywhere _near_ me?"

"I'm pissed, sure," Yang explained. "But I'm willing to put that aside. I don't even know you! But I know one thing: you're my mother. Summer raised me, sure, but I want to know you. I always have. And I still do."

"And I want to know more about mom! _My_ mom! Dad always clammed up when I asked, so—" Raven began to openly cry, making Ruby shut down the force field separating them, walk over and hug her stepmother.

Ron simply walked through the force field and past the family. He was still pissed at Raven.

But that would fade as long as she tried to be with her family.

"You're a dick, captain. You tortured her with that."

Ron chuckled at Qrow's accusations. "True. But abandoning family is a big 'fuck no' for me and mine. Unless parents torture or abuse, family stays together."

"Not say'n anything against it, just pointing it out," Qrow said, with a small smile. "Thanks Captain… I owe you one for this."

"I find a way to bring Summer back from the dead that doesn't involve cloning or holograms, you'll owe me a _lot_ more. Just spend time with your family."

"That seems personal to you."

"Don't have that much family. Father's side of the family died during the Dominion war and my father passed away in 2403. We don't spend that much time together because of our jobs… but we DO spend time together. Don't lose them."

Ron walked away, Qrow chuckling.

"Family asshole."

* * *

Mark collapsed to the deck of the _Avenger_ , breathing heavily. He had been across the globe in less than 36 hours, assisting resistance cells, taking down remaining ADVENT forces, etc.

Even with Aura enhancing his body, doing that much in such short amount of time took it's toll.

"Here." Mark looked up and saw a water bottle being offered to him.

"Thanks." He took the bottle, broke it open and took a big swig.

Only now did he see the person's face.

He gasped, taking water down his throat and sending him into a furious fit of coughing.

Larcei smiled and thumped his back, sitting down next to him. "Woah there."

"* _Cough*_ I- * _wheeze*_ Good lord." He finally recovered. "Larcei I-"

"It's ok."

"No, it isn't. If I was faster—"

"Forget it. You couldn't fight a gravity well like that. Even my uncle would've failed to grab me. At least I'm alive."

Mark sighed. "You're right. Doesn't stop it from being any less awkward. Look at you! One moment I'm entertaining a little three year old, now you're fully grown and _older_ than me!"

She giggled. "It is weird when you put it that way." She shrugged. "Welcome to Starfleet. Weird's part of the job. I have to go pack: Lily and I are joining the ship before it leaves."

"Really?"

"Yup. She's my girlfriend. I just asked her to marry me—" THUD

Mark twitched on the floor.

Larcei giggled. "Guess I should've mentioned that."

* * *

XCOM's donations to the fleet were all the alien data they could salvage, some specialized armor to inspire Sonja and PLENTY of sectopod wrecks.

Few people wanted to leave Earth, but some XCOM personnel that joined included Lily, Larcei and Raven, who was enduring her 'family torture'.

And in return, the _Ra Cailum_ helped finish off Advent, provided the proper relief supplies to the people of Earth to ensure that they'll be able to recover without their help. Earth was finally free of ADVENT Control, and XCOM was now humanity's shield. All they had to do for Starfleet though, was make a promise: to not become the very thing they fought against. That when they rise into the stars, to do so with a bit of optimism to the possibility that they will one day have _peaceful_ first contact with an alien race. Otherwise _Ra Cailum_ would come back.

And _no one_ wanted to fuck with Starfleet - especially knowing what they could do in full.

And Ron was getting dressed in his fancy uniform. "I hate these fucking dress uniforms. _That's_ why I wanted to replace all of them with the 2285 version: fancy but practical."

Cassie adjusted the collar, smiling. "You're the captain and chaplain. You need to look different at Lily and Larcei's wedding."

Lily and Larcei had barged into his ready room, asking for him to marry them. Ron feigned confusion and horror before Lily frantically corrected Larcei, who said he understood, he was just screwing with her. He asked when, she said as soon as possible.

So Twelve Forward was converted into a wedding hall. The last thing they would do is marry the couple off before they left.

Jaden tugged against the collar of his own dress uniform. "I know this is for Larcei… but I agree with Ron, I like those red uniforms from 2285 a bit more." He muttered.

"See, he agrees." Jaden cursed as Larcei entered the room, wearing a red uniform. She was going to be the 'groom'. "And she gets the uniform I WANT to be wearing. This is unfair."

"Suck it up, Ron," Takeshi replied, also clad in the more 'modern' dress uniform. "It's not too bad once you get used to it."

"Fuck. You. These things are uncomfortable and they chafe. The older ones don't."

"You're picky."

"I would like to have a uniform that doesn't itch like a royal whore for hours on end!"

"Dad's right, Uncle Ron," Larcei said as she joined them. "You're picky. Besides, it looks good on you."

"I am BURNING these once this is over." He itched at his neck, showing red lines.

"Holy shit, they DO chafe. That's not him being picky, that's him telling the truth."

"As fucking usual!"

"Maybe that's a Ron-specific reaction?" Takeshi asked, as he and Luna exposed their own necks briefly, showing no chafe.

"Screw this." Ron left the room, itching at his neck before tearing the uniform off half way out.

"I get the feeling his uniform was not made to order."

Five minutes later, Ron returned, wearing the 2285 version of the uniform. "Fuck you all. This thing fits like a glove."

"Or maybe you got something a size too small, or one of the first, experimental versions of it," Takeshi postulated. "It's something that our least favorite Asshole Admiral would do, I think."

"Still burning it. Where's the bride?" The doors then opened, allowing Lily to come in, wearing a beautiful wedding dress.

"Now THAT is a dress. Time to do my job."

Larcei smiled at her bride, glad that they were finally getting married. They'd first gotten involved about three years earlier, and now, they were taking the ultimate symbol of commitment.

Ron coughed. "What's that line… oh, right. Since the days of the first wooden sailing ships, all captains have enjoyed the happy privilege of joining together two people in the bonds of matrimony. And so it is my honour to unite you, Larcei Yamato and you, An-li Shen, together in matrimony. Now, kiss each other so I can get us the hell out of this universe, please."

The two women smiled, and kissed each other deeply.

"Riza, get us the fuck out of here."

His sister giggled before whispering 'Veronica' into Jaden's ears.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Ron walked towards the bar, grabbing a bottle of the green stuff before downing part of it.

"Mind if I join you?" Qrow asked as he walked up.

"Sure. It'll be a few minutes before we jump." He grabbed a bottle of whisky, handing it to him. Qrow popped the cork, pouring some into a glass and downing it before he sputtered. "That's not booze."

"Hmm." Ron grabbed the bottle and downed some of it. "It's booze, just not normal booze. Synthohol: you get the pleasantness and none of the liver damage. I don't touch the stuff: not potent enough."

Qrow looked shocked. "You guys actually have shit like that?" he asked.

"We didn't invent it. The Ferengi did. Comes in handy for drinking on duty. You don't get drunk."

"That's no fun."

"I have the literal iron liver. You don't."

"Point taken," Qrow replied. "Though I suppose this stuff would be good for… 'introducing' people to alcohol. Give them this non-alcoholic stuff first, then see how they like the real thing afterwards."

Ron downed the green, chugging it. "I'm going back to the bridge. Drink your sister under the table for me."

"You got it," Qrow replied, putting down the Syntheholic whiskey and picking up the bottle of the green stuff. He drank from it.

And promptly fell on the deck unconscious.

The bottle was caught by a young redhead wearing a cloak over her Starfleet uniform. "Oooh, what's this?"

Ruby Rose opened the top, sniffed it, shrugged, then took a big guzzle.

Takeshi froze, seeing what Ruby did. "Luna, please tell me that's not what I think it is."

Luna glanced over, seeing the bottle in Ruby's hands, whose eyes had glazed over. "Oh god."

"HEHEHEHE!" The _terrifying_ laugh echoed through the room before a red _blur_ of lightning darted out of Twelve Forward, breaking the doors down.

"OH FUCK!" Yang shouted. "That's Ruby on the equivalent of a sugar high!"

"No matter how fast she goes, the force fields will stop her." Cassie said.

"Can they stop something vibrating at hypersonic speeds?"

"It can stop RON at hypersonic speeds when I set the damn things to multiadaptive mode."

ZAP!

"OW!"

"Told you."

Yang sighed. "As they do on the _Ra Calium._ "

Outside the window, the _Firestorm, Morningstar,_ and several loaned saucers formed up with the dreadnought.

" _All hands, prep for wormhole transition."_

The fleet shot off, leaving behind another changed world, even as they moved on to another universe in need.

* * *

 **Redemption's Avenger: And there you are! XCOM 2 done. We'll be arriving at our location _very_ soon.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Random order to the visitations. In the original, 00 was nowhere near the beginning… what will be next?**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Well, find out next time, as we find a world beset by adversaries.**

 **Yang: Sounds like Remnant.**

 **RA: It's close. These baddies also want genocide.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Spoilers. None. No hints.**

 **117Jorn: Hey Ron! I dare you to throw that knife to the wall! Betcha can't stick it!**

 **Ron the True Fan: See you next week, people.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	22. Chapter 22

**USS Ra Cailum**

* * *

 _Captain's Log, USS Ra Cailum, Stardate 88088.2: It's been roughly 8 months since the beginning of what my crew is now coining the Odyssey._

 _The irony is killing me._

 _All I can say is this: all is well, my crew is insane and I need to kill something._

Again.

* * *

With a rumble, the fleet emerged on the other side.

"Cassie, raise the cloak, expand it over the fleet. Corpie, status?"

"All ships are accounted for. And STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

Ron cackled. "Any ships in the area?"

Corpsa fixed him with a glare that would have reduced a lesser man to tears before going back to her console. "I'm reading…" She whistled. "A twenty nine-kilometer long ship, twenty thousand kilometers off port."

Ron raised an eyebrow. "Did they detect us?"

"No. Their sensor range isn't as long as ours. What's worse, the coordinates are… Epsilon Eridani."

"10 lightyears from Earth."

" _And with no Starfleet bases or ships in range, I'd say we're in another alternate universe,_ " Takeshi remarked from the _Firestorm_.

"GodFUCKINGdamn it. Bring us in closer and standby sensors. ANY change, I want to know about it."

* * *

 **August 14th 2552 AD - Epsilon Eridani System**

 **SDV-class heavy corvette _Ardent Prayer_ \- en-route to Supercarrier ' _Long night of Solace_ '**

* * *

" _Distance is closing with this vessel's refueling track to the Covenant Supercarrier. Seventy-Six seconds till endpoint._ "

SPARTAN-052, otherwise known by his fellow SPARTAN-II's and Noble Team as Jorge - paid mild attention to Auntie Dot's assessment of the situation, as he focused on setting the charge for the Slipspace bomb. However as he tried to set the charge, he was met with an annoying 'beep' sound. "Dammit…" he muttered under his breath. "So, it's gonna be like that?"

He glanced back to where the newest member of their team, one SPARTAN-B312 Sayane, or 'Noble Six' stood, wearing steel grey MJOLNIR V(B) Armor. He sighed, slamming his hand against the bomb's terminal once. "Well, I got good news and bad news." He stated, grabbing the Spartan's attention. "The bird took some fire, and her thruster gimbal is toast. Which means the only way off this slag-heap is gravity."

Sayane looked up at the towering Spartan, sighing "And the good news?" She asked.

"That _was_ the good news."

" _At current velocity, fifty-three seconds to impact._ "

"Yeah, yeah yeah…" Jorge muttered, reaching for his helmet as he pulled it off, letting it drop down to the deck - looking at Sayane directly. "Bad news is… timer's fried. I'm gonna have to fire it manually."

"…that's a one way Trip." Sayane muttered, her head bowing slightly.

"We all make it sooner or later." Jorge replied, sighing. "You better get going Six, they're gonna need you down there… " He reached for his neck, and yanked of his dogtags. "Look… Reach has been good to me. Time has come to return the favor." He clasped his Tags into Six's hand, grappling with her before he picked the SPARTAN-III up. "Don't deny me this."

He carried her over towards the air shield of the hangar. "Tell them to make it count." He stated, letting go and tossing the Spartan out the shield, as gravity did the rest as she was pulled down towards Reach - leaving Jorge alone in the hangar bay with the bomb.

* * *

Upon arriving at Epsilon Eridani, they were somewhat relieved to see what looked like human structures over the planet, with loads of human life signs. However what clearly _didn't_ seem to belong was the massive multi-kilometer long supercarrier which made a Borg Cube look _tiny_.

"…that is one big motherfucking ship right there." Jaden mused.

"Captain, picking up a single human lifesign on the ship and a MASSIVE subspace energy buildup! It's a bomb!"

Ron thought quickly. "Lock onto the lifesign. Beam it on board. Transporter room four, standby to energize!"

"Locked on! Bomb will detonate in 6 seconds!"

"ENERGIZE!"

Plenty of time: transporters took exactly 5 seconds to cycle. Whoever it was would be fine.

* * *

Jorge triggered the bomb, allowing it to activate before he was covered in a shower of light.

* * *

"Confinement beam is stable! He's in the buffer!"

A massive ball of unnatural black, outlined by a purple tinge consumed the super-ship's middle, tearing the ship in half. After several seconds, the ball collapsed in on itself without a sound, leaving the bow and stern of the ship to be claimed by the planet's gravity.

"I'll be in Transporter Room 4. Time to greet our new friend."

* * *

Jorge blinked rapidly. In all his years of combat, in all his years of training, he had never, _never_ experienced something like that.

Was this… death?

He stood, trying to walk off the platform before a field of energy stopped him. The room had a single console with a short…being manning it, tapping on the controls before the doors opened, allowing a team of what looked like humans and some aliens wielding rifles to enter, pointing them at Jorge.

"If you want a fight, you're gonna get one."

"Stand down, people."

The security people went at ease as another man entered, his collar having more pips than the others, with a grand total of four gold pips on his right collar.

"Who are you?"

The officer raised a hand. "Oh, that's not how things work. You see you're a guest on _my_ ship, which means you introduce yourself _first."_

Jorge stood tall, trying to intimidate them. He wasn't impressed. Most Spartans scared the piss out of insurrectionists. Not this one.

"Jorge-052. United Nations Space Command NavSpecWep."

"Naval Special Weapons Division." Ron mused, "Hmm. Ronald Pinkerton, Captain of the United Federation of Planets Starship _Ra Cailum_. And I just saved your ass."

"How the hell did you do _that_?" Jorge asked, his eyes narrowed at the man. "That's some pretty fancy tech for Innies to have. Been cutting deals with the Covenant, someone else?"

"We developed transporter technology 250 years ago. We're not from around here. We saved your ass from that subspace bomb. I don't know any Covenant and I don't care."

Jorge touched the field again.

"Powered armor. Nice look."

"Thank you?" He didn't question how he knew the MJOLNIR was powered armor, any person with a trained eye could notice that. What he really wondered about was the invisible force field blocking him.

"I'll take you to sickbay. You can tell me more en route." Jorge thought of ways to escape the ship, but the captain felt secure. Safe.

He knew how to stop a Spartan, somehow. "You ONI?"

"I'm not with your Office of Naval Intelligence or anything you know. Follow me."

The field went down.

Jorge tensed, but decided against it. There was a fully armed and ready security team in the room, there were probably more of those invisible force fields, and he had no idea what Pinkerton could do. Give Jorge some weapons and more options, he could do something. He did not have those.

He _was_ a SPARTAN-II, but he was no Master Chief.

"Alright." He stepped down.

Ron smiled. "Good. You guys are dismissed."

The group left without a word of protest, much to Jorge's surprise.

"Not scared of me?"

"I could kick your ass, armor or not. The security team was to _keep_ you here until I _got_ here. I'm the most dangerous motherfucker on this ship."

Jorge shrugged. "Don't know about a Starfleet, but I know you're not Innie. No Innie would be facing a Spartan and not be shitting his pants."

"To be frank? You're not that intimidating. I've faced down scarier things then you."

Jorge stared as the man left the room, processing that before realizing he was being left in the dust.

He then followed him down the hall, seeing… people with animal features, like bunny ears and cat tails, blue aliens with antennae and other non-humans.

"Only 40% of the crew of this ship is human. The rest are a smaller collection of other species, but all are members of the Federation or attended Starfleet Academy."

"It's… shocking." The only times Jorge had seen aliens, they were all trying to kill him. It was taking considerable restraint not to react violently.

It was understandable, with all the other races of the galaxy out to kill your kind.

"1080 meters long, maximum warp speed of warp 9.9999996, or so I'm supposed to say, as the speed's actually HIGHER, deflector shields, phaser arrays, torpedo tubes… the ship is classified as a superdreadnought in times of war."

He had a hard time believing that. "And… the Covenant can't see you?"

"We're cloaked. They can't see our _engine emissions_ , let alone the hull."

"…just who ARE you people?" Jorge asked, "UNSC hasn't seen anything like this before… or any of these… species."

"I just told you. We're Starfleet. UFP Starfleet. We're from an alternate universe and trying to make our way home. It's fun." The two arrived at a door, which opened automatically.

Jorge knew a medical bay when he saw one: even an idiot would recognize a sickbay, even with the strange materials and tools.

"Rutia! Where are you, you Trill bitch?"

"I'm in my office, asshole." A woman wearing a blue overcoat exited an office, looking at Jorge. "Get the armor off and I'll give you an exam."

"No can do…" As soon as he said no, the doctor smiled sweetly, but the eyes promised punishment if he disobeyed.

ONI would kill him, but Jorge valued his life.

So fuck ONI.

"Yes ma'am."

"I'll let you get to work." Ron left, allowing Jorge to be left with Rutia.

"Commander Rutia Yulanra, CMO of this lovely ship."

"Jorge-052, Spartan-II company."

"Hmm, named after the warriors of greece…" She eyed him up a bit. "Certainly fits… well, get that armor off so I can get better readings with the tricorder."

Jorge, somewhat hesitantly, did as asked. Considering the technology he's already seen these people have, it's entirely possible that his MJOLNIR armor is woefully outdated by whatever they have, so it wouldn't matter one way or the other. He took off the rest of his armor piece by piece, a few minute later and all he was clad in was the underlying suit.

"Taller than most humans. Hell, you're taller than the boss. Who's pretty tall." She pulled out a boxy object, flipping it open before withdrawing a cylinder of some kind before she stretched out with it. Jorge immediately backed away.

"It's a non-invasive scanner." She explained, amused. "It won't hurt you, you giant baby." She activated it, passing it over his body. Jorge didn't feel a damn thing.

Fuck the Covenant; THESE were the most advanced civilization the UNSC, through him, had ever encountered.

"Let's see here…" Rutia muttered, looking through the scans. She blinked for a moment "The hell happened to _you_ in there?"

Jorge was confused, before thinking she must be referring to the S-II augmentations. "They're the augmentations performed on Spartans." He informed. "They give us the best chance at fighting against the Covenant."

".75 diamond hardness ceramics, a thyroid implant, alterations to your lungs and heart, something grafted to your nervous system… fuck me, you're the third most augmented person I've ever encountered!"

Jorge blinked. "Only third?"

"Any normal Liberated Borg takes second place." She informed, "The boss takes first. 70% of his body's been completely replaced."

"70%?" Jorge asked, actually taken aback by the claim. "Why did he do that?"

"Well, he didn't _choose_ to," Rutia said, continuing to scan him. "The Borg - the guys I just mentioned - were the ones who did it. Forced him through it against his will… plus side we got him back, but he's stuck with those augments for the rest of his life unless some miracle tech comes through… yours on the other hand _are_ fixable though. I could use Meld to fix some of the issues easy enough, and fix your sex drive too…"

Jorge blinked. She could fix some of the problems, give him a normal life _with_ the advantages of the augmentations?

Even Halsey couldn't do that.

"I'll have to talk to my superiors about that, but if it were up to me, ma'am, I'd take the chance."

" _Rutia, if you're done with our guest, send him up to the bridge: we have a problem. A problem involving a fuckton of alien warships._ "

The CMO sighed slightly "One minute Captain," She said, "Well… it looks like those will have to wait, Mr. Jorge. You head up to the bridge, but I _will_ see you down here once the latest crisis has been averted."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Mom? OH, you're hungarian. It's the accent. Still, cute. Reminds me of my last life."

"You believe in reincarnation?"

"Hell no. I'm a Trill. My symbiont has had over 12 hosts. I'm just the most recent."

Jorge stared. She looked so human, other than the spots.

And pretty, in a terrifying way.

…Where did THAT thought come from?

* * *

Ron looked at the massive fleet of warships.

"Crew, I have a problem."

"Which one?"

"Screw you, Kim. My problem is that I'm torn."

"Torn between the Prime Directive and just blasting them to pieces?" Takeshi asked.

"Yes. On one hand, Starfleet's highest directive is trying to tell me 'not your problem, don't get involved'. On the other, I want to save these people by getting completely involved and kicking some serious ass!"

"And that's a problem?"

"Yes, because eventually, I'm going to have to answer to Starfleet Command about that."

Jaden hummed in thought, looking at the ships as they pressed forward. "I don't like how this looks to be honest… " he said, "Those alien ships, those… _Covenant_ , they outnumber the human fleet by big numbers… sensors show the Aliens have shields, plasma weapons and a bunch of fancy toys, and the humans only have magnetic accelerator weapons and standard ballistics… it's like 23rd Century Romulans vs 21st Century humanity. It's not even fair."

"I'm picking up transmissions between the Covenant ships." Corpsa spoke up. "Something about a 'holy fire' and 'the will of the gods'."

Ron's eye twitched.

He had problems with religion. Problems being 'unless it says peace and cooperation, it must die'.

This was a religious crusade. A holy war.

"Ok, fuck the Prime Directive."

Jaden chuckled. "What made up your mind?"

"The millisecond that someone mentioned _religion_ being a motivation. Time to go killing. Mobius Squadron, launch on my order." He stalked back to his chair, planting his ass in it.

"All hands, stand to battle stations!"

"So, I'm guessing the mobile suit division is on reserve again?" Jaden asked, before pausing. "…you know we need an official name for that eventually."

"I don't want to give people ideas, Jaden. I want to maintain an advantage as long as possible. And it's up to you to come up with a name for it."

Point again. If the Covenant could make mobile Suits, the humans were fucked.

"Got it," Jaden said, sighing. "Well, while you're all having fun, me, Sonja and Nena will be working on engineering projects… and a name for the division."

* * *

Jorge entered the bridge, still in wonder about the massive ship. Sure, it was tinier than most UNSC warships, but…

FUCK, it was powerful as a Covenant supercarrier! One he just destroyed!

He _needed_ to get these people on the side of the UNSC, and fast.

"Ah, Jorge, right?" He turned to see the Captain, standing on the bridge. "Glad you can make it… we have a bit of a… situation."

"What's happening?"

"Your enemy, the Covenant, are attacking your planet in force."

"You've got to do something."

"I would, but two problems: one, regulations state that I can't do shit. The Prime Directive keeps me from getting involved in affairs that don't involve the Federation. I'm ignoring that for now. The other problem is your forces and how they'd react."

Jorge paused. It made sense, their ship wasn't UNSC, and actually looked rather Covenant with its curvy design. "…Sir, does this ship have any writing on the hull?" He asked.

"Yes, the name, hull registry… why?"

"If you can show that to the UNSC, they won't shoot at you… yet at least," He said. "They'll know if nothing else, you're not Covenant… I will admit I'm not sure how they'll react when they find out you have non-human crewmen though…" He spared a glance at the Andorian sitting behind the tactical station. "…if nothing else, if you shoot at the Covenant first, they won't shoot at you."

"Very well. Corpsa, photon torpedoes. Target the largest Covenant warships."

"You might need more than one torpedo, Captain." Jorge interjected.

"30 isotons of explosive force will tear them apart. Photons are matter/antimatter warheads with enough force to blow apart a small continent on Earth. If nothing else, it'll at least cripple one or two of them."

Antimatter weapons? They were on par with the Covenant in that area, at least.

"Perhaps before we get involved, we should try and get some intel on the ground," Jaden suggested. "The Covenant and UNSC ships haven't engaged yet… we could help evacuate civilians first, and when they're about to clash we can intervene, try and get the Covenant to stand down… if they don't… well Ron, I'll have the Cancan music ready."

* * *

Carter looked into orbit, seeing nothing but massive numbers of Covenant warships. Too many.

"We're going to get slaughtered down here. There's thousands of Covenant troops on those ships. And we don't have enough men to fight them all. Not to mention we just lost Jorge and the new guy." Carter was tempted to tell Jun to shut up. Jorge was born on Reach: he just died thinking he SAVED Reach!

And Six… Six could take care of herself. She was called a hyper-lethal vector for a reason.

And only _one_ other Spartan held that title.

"We don't know that," Kat said. "They had re-entry packs, they could've gotten out."

"Wishful thinking," Emile stated, before he pulled out his shotgun. "Movement!"

The Spartans all raised their weapons in the direction… when, rounding a corner, appeared four human women.

"I think it was-" one wearing a red/black dress began, before noticing the Spartans. "Oh! Uhh… Hi!" She waved, smiling.

"Civies," Carter said, as they lowered their weapons. "What the hell are you doing here? You need to get to an Evac zone now!"

"We, uh, got lost!"

"In a warzone?"

"Assholes with plasma weapons were shooting at us and our parents." The older, blond bombshell replied. "We got separated and… well, I think they're dead."

"Yang!"

Emile lowered his shotgun. "Bunch of teenage girls. Great. What do we do, boss?"

Carter groaned. "Protect them from the Covenant. Kat, Jun, make a sweep. Make sure the Covies didn't track them here."

The blackhead scoffed. "We'd've noticed."

"You four? Just stick with us," Carter said, pointing at them. "We'll get you to the Evac site. Emile, you're with me."

The skull-masked Spartan groaned "Great… babysitting." he muttered.

"It's our job, Emile. Come on."

Unknown to the Spartans, Team RWBY grinned, especially Blake.

They beamed down, finding the closest group of Spartan power armor signatures. The rest, you know.

Thankfully they had PSGs and their weapons were Starfleet-grade.

* * *

"…Hammerheads?"

"Nah."

"Seraphs?"

"No."

"Screaming Eagles?"

"MACO's got that already - descended from the original 101st."

"GAH! Why are the good names always taken!" Jaden cursed, falling back onto bed as he racked his skull. "We can't just call it 'Starfleet 1st Mobile Weapons Division', it's too much a damn mouthful!"

Sonja and Nena both giggled slightly at Jaden's expense. "We'll figure something out…" Nena said. "We've got plenty of time to, since It'll be a while before Ron needs us."

Jaden groaned. Usually, Mobile Suits were the first machines out and the last ones back. But NO, Mr Crazy decided to be sensible and not deploy them!

Well, sometimes insanity looped back around to reintroduce common sense. It was a bitch like that. Kinda how Celestial Being lasted so long in spite of their goal being completely idiotic and impossible. And maybe that was why the Borg lost their hold on him.

That and a grenade to the face.

 _Puurrrr…_

Jaden's eyes widened before he looked at his feet.

A brown ball of fur sat there.

"Uh, Sonja… is that a boom tribble?"

"Yup. They just don't explode unless they're overstimulated. They still make good pets. Who happen to explode if you make them WAY too happy."

"…that may be a bad idea…"

"Why do you-" She began, before she heard a 'cooing' sound, and looked to see Nena giving Tribbles a full loaf of bread.

"Your so cute and adorable…" Nena said, petting the tribbles like she would any pet. "I love you sooo much… "

"Uh, Nena, these ones explode." The Tribble began to very loudly purr. Sonja and Jaden took cover… but no boom. They poked their heads up to see the very happy tribble being pet by Nena.

"Why didn't it explode?"

Sonja shrugged. "Maybe it's a genetic defect. Or maybe the tribble doesn't want to explode. Often times they only explode if they run into Klingons or Ron pets them."

Jaden and Sonja watched, as Nena continued to gush over the Tribbles, all of them purring loudly like they would detonate… but they didn't. "…that, or they just really like Nena." Jaden muttered.

The chief engineer let out a sigh. "Tribbles… I'll never understand them…" she muttered, as she dropped into the bed.

* * *

Jorge was headed back to sickbay, as per Rutia's orders. Even though he wasn't part of her military, her orders could have basically come from god himself, so Jorge followed.

This time, he was escorted by a young, brown haired man. He was heavily armed, carrying several pistols and a rifle on a back magplate.

"Captain send you to escort me down?"

"I was bored. And with Team RWBY on the ground, I'm the best man to lead the non-Starfleet security people." Jorge hummed as they reentered sickbay.

"Doctor? Our Spartan's back."

Rutia poked her head out of her office. "Ah, good!" She pulled out a tricorder. "I need to take more detailed DNA readings, see if they screwed with your DNA, as well."

Jorge blinked. "Didn't you get that from the last time?"

"That was a basic checkup. THIS is a detailed examination, which, even with us, takes time."

Jorge sighed, nodded, then laid down on the biobed. His escort stood by the door, at the ready. The EEG and EKG meters began going off, followed by Rutia passing medical scanners over his body. "So, where are you from, Jorge? You got a family?"

"I was born on Reach. That planet below's my home. As for family, well, the only family I know and have are the the other Spartan-IIs."

"Child soldiers." Rutia deduced, seeing his age and the imprint of the alterations. "He is _not_ going to be happy. So far, I see no signs of DNA alterations."

"Why's that a problem?"

"It's illegal in the Federation. Granted, you're not a Federation citizen, but I wanted to see what they did to you."

"Well, with the extent this humanity is being exterminated, I'm surprised that they _haven't_ gone into genetic alterations." The guard commented.

"That simply means they either don't have the capacity or simply isn't practical, Thyler." Rutia retorted.

"Wait," Jorge interjected. "Outlawing genetic alterations means that you have the capacity to do that. Why outlaw it?"

"It resulted in a war that saw genetically engineered people fighting the rest of the Earth. Since then, genetic engineering beyond basic disease removal became illegal."

"And people haven't objected?" Mark asked, not entirely read up on Federation history.

"Oh yeah. We had several lunatics, mostly with the name Singh, try to bring back the Augments. The most prominent incident was with a group of war criminals that had been frozen and sent into space. _Enterprise_ came across them, and found out their leader was-" Rutia held up a finger.

"KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" Ron's voice shouted out from nowhere.

"Him."

Mark facepalmed. "Let me guess. The man has a way of sensing when someone is about to say the name?"

"Yup."

"So… Khan." Jorge said, trying to get back on point.

"Kirk kicked his ass twice. Second time resulted in the crippling of the _Enterprise_ and him getting blown to fuck."

The Spartan hmmed before Rutia groaned. "Speaking of which, that asshole that happens to be my captain is a bigger mystery. I've never been able to map his genetic profile for some reason."

"Is it a problem with your computers?"

"No, the data just won't stay in the database. Everyone else, it stays. But when it comes to the captain and his sister, nothing stays."

Mark got thinking. "So, as soon as you try cross-referencing the data, it just disappears?"

"Yup."

"Mmmm. It must be something hard-coded into the system, something that Cassie or Sonja can't pick up. We'd have to tear the entire thing down, but that's a no go. Maybe…" He stopped. "Give me some time to think on this and analyze the systems, then I'll come back to you. Someone's hiding something."

"If Sonja couldn't find it, you sure as hell can't. She's the second coming of Scotty. You? You're just a hunter that dabbles in electronics once in awhile and you still don't have a full grasp of our systems. You locked yourself in a storage room for five hours until Cassie noticed you were in there."

He blushed. "Yeahhhhh…"

"See? Now, Jorge, you're ready for duty again. And once Ron decloaks the ship, you're going back in the field."

" _Attention, all hands. We will be decloaking in five minutes to engage the Covenant. All hands, stand to battle stations!"_

Red alert klaxons started going off. "Well Jorge, that's our cue." Mark beckoned."Come on, I can get you back into your armor. You're gonna _like_ some of the stuff Starfleet has."

* * *

 **HA Anderson: Well, you know what time it is!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Rape time~**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Oh yeah. Truth is gonna face the _truth_ of the _Ra Calium's_ destructive power.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yep. Expect epic carnage next chapter.**

 **Ruby: What's up with that Anderson guy, anyway?**

 **Ron the True Fan: He's FUN. Here, Ruby. (Hands over laptop and plays Hellsing Abridged)**

 **Rubes: Ohhhhh.**

 **117Jorn: And now you know! And knowing is half the battle!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Reach Orbit**

 ** _Ascendant Justice_**

* * *

Rtas Vadam'ee watched as the humans fought on. Like any Sangheili with honor, they fought bravely.

They were outgunned and outnumbered. Was it bravery or desperation? Or was it both?

Were it not the will of the gods, he would welcome the humans into their Covenant.

He had indeed been surprised when the humans managed to destroy the _Long Night of Solace_ via a void bomb. It was ingenious really. But a supercarrier was one big target, now, there was no way for the humans to try to even the odds like they did.

A shimmering light appeared, signifying a ship leaving cloak. "Fleetmaster!"

"Yes, I see it." Supreme Commander Thel Vadam'ee confirmed from his command chair. "What is it? Another human ship?"

An interesting ship. It had the curves of a Covenant vessel, yet it wasn't. It was also escorted by two ships of similar color, and several… saucers. "Inform the closest scout to investigate. If it is human, destroy it."

Before the order could be sent however, suddenly their comms were activated " _This is the United Federation of Planets starship USS_ Ra Cailum, _to all ships engaged in the Epsilon Eridani system,_ " A human voice spoke. " _I'm giving you all ONE chance. Power down your weapons, so we can talk like civilized beings. Fail - and we will RAPE you._ "

Thel frowned. "A strange request to make, considering we have done nothing of the sort through the entire war. I also don't recognize a 'United Federation of Planets.' " Could these be new players? A group that had been watching the war from a distance? Or maybe, dare he _think_ it, the gods?

" _Well, jackass, you fucked with the WRONG man. Cassie? Music please. Something… fitting._ "

"I have just the thing."

Then music began playing over the comm.

 **(BGM: Midway by Sabaton** )

While he would not be distracted (unlike a certain other series) he had no idea how SCREWED he was.

* * *

Ron began issuing orders like mad, then grinned. "Jaden, consider my last order rescinded. LAUNCH ALL MOBILE SUITS!"

Jaden cackled. "Oh HELL YES! Jaden Takeo, 0 Gundam Mk II, launching!"

Fighters and Mobile suits flew from the fleet alongside the fleet's _Roswell_ saucers, head first into a Covenant Seraph wing.

The fighters seemed to stagger at the strange sight before them, but shook that off and charged with typical Covenant zeal.

That would be their end.

"What was it that Klingon said…" Jaden mused before he smirked. "Ah, Right… Chang. 'CRY HAVOC, AND LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR!'"

The 0 Gundam Mk-II charged towards one of the Seraph fighters, as it fired its plasma weapons at the mobile suit. In response, Jaden raised his shield, deflecting the shots, then pulled out a beam saber, speeding towards the fighter. The 0's physical shield hit against the Seraph's energy shield, which flickered and died before he sliced the craft in half. Putting the saber away, he drew out his beam assault carbine and opened fire on the rest of the squadron - the beam weapons proving to be _quite_ effective against their shields, turning the rest of the Seraph squadron into confetti.

The space-based Banshees fired their fuel rod cannons at the Mk II, which blocked the shots and returned fire, destroying them. Mobius Squadron swooped in, firing their pulse cannons and phaser arrays at the fighters, slowly clearing the way for the Mobile Suits to go after…

 _Bigger_ prey.

If Mobile Suits were predators, then capital ships were their most favorite prey item. Carriers and cruisers and battleships: all of them were fodder to an MS team.

Well, except for ships like the _Ra Cailum_ : even 00 Raiser would have problems firing the _Odyssey_ -Class superdreadnought. Only the machine's agility would be its' saving grace and even _then_ the Gundam would not come out undamaged.

But these Covenant ships had inferior weapons to the _Ra Cailum_ and just as inferior targeting sensors. If they were compared to a dinosaur, Jaden would pick them to be something like brontosaurus or something.

The Mobile Suits… they were raptors.

Jaden and two Hoplites blasted away a DDS' shields, allowing Jaden to land on the hull, beam blade ignited, and run up the hull, exposing the interior to vacuum and venting bodies. Getting down to the engines, he separated them from the hull, then flew out, letting the ship destroy itself.

Other pilots were not nearly as fancy, simply coring the warships through, or destroying their bridges.

It was nothing short of a _slaughter_. Covenant shipmasters tried to fight the small, agile humanoid machines, but to no avail - as they simply couldn't get a proper hit on them - all wondering how in the hell a handful of machines barely over 20 meters tall, were taking down warships spanning multiple kilometers!

The _Ra Cailum_ entered the slaughter, and began with targeting a CAS. One of the dorsal phaser banks came to life, hitting the warship amidships as it tried to turn away from the mobile suits. The vessel's shields came to life, however, instead of flashing blue in the area of impact and disappearing, the shields flickered rapidly like physical static, then, while the CAS' shields were still up, punched through, tearing through armor plate, internal bulkheads and power lines.

And emerging from the other side.

The beam stopped, and not a second later a large explosion erupted through the hole cut by the _Ra Calium._ The vessel's engines flickered, then died, seconds before the entire ship exploded.

Such a scene was being repeated across the fleet as the _Ra Calium's_ entire weapons array opened up on the Fleet of Particular Justice.

The Covenant were getting their asses whupped.

* * *

 **UNSC _Saratoga_**

* * *

"Holy. Shit." Adrian Drake watched as the massive and mysterious warship tore the Covenant apart, dodging torpedoes and absorbing plasma strikes with its' more powerful shields. One CAS-Class assault carrier was hit with a single torpedo, the shields tanking the shot.

Sadly for the carrier, the internal damage caused secondary explosions that destroyed the ship.

It was like firing a .50 cal at a bible, amusingly enough.

He was jealous.

"Who the fuck _are_ these guys?" Adrian asked, "Andraste?"

A feminine holographic figure appeared from the holo-tank. " _I… have no idea, sir._ " The A.I Andraste said shrugging, " _Their technology is unlike anything the UNSC has encountered, and more than what the Covenant's encountered it seems._ "

A CCS-Class battlecruiser exploded, and the ship flew out of the debris.

On the saucer section, in english, was written USS _Ra Cailum_ , NCC-94517-A.

Adrian blinked in astonishment. "That text… Humans?"

" _Apparently. They're giving us time to regroup and evacuate the civilians off Anchor Nine and the other surviving orbitals, sir. Orders?_ "

"Relay orders to evac the civies off the surviving orbitals. We need to make the most of this."

* * *

 **Reach**

* * *

It was all for fucking nothing.

Jorge… Jorge was DEAD. For NOTHING.

Reach was going to fall and Jorge died thinking he SAVED REACH!

Sayane B-312 limped over the hill, as New Alexandria came into view. She could already see parts of the city in flames, as a SDV-class Corvette loomed overhead, Banshee's soaring between the towers as the Covenant attacked.

' _It's still going to fall…_ ' she thought, somberly, bowing her head as she looked at Jorge's dogtags. ' _It's still gonna…_ ' She closed her eyes, pausing for a moment, before she let out a silent growl, glaring up at the Covenant corvette.

"Not just yet…" she muttered, pocketing the tags, and pulling out her M6G Sidearm, as she ran forward, intent to reach the city… and make it count.

* * *

"Seriously! They look like freaky bugs!"

"Ruby, they don't look like bugs. They look like crabs."

Ruby looked at the Grunts through the scope of a borrowed DMR, watching them waddle like ducks.

"Buggy."

"Technically, your friend's right, miss Schnee." Weiss narrowed her eyes at the proper English pronunciation to her name.

She preferred the Remnant version.

"Please… just Weiss." She said, glancing back at the Spartans of Noble Team who have been 'escorting' them. Though it had evolved into more helping them, when after one engagement with the Covenant, the four grabbed some UNSC weapons (keeping their own weapons in reserve until the time was right) and proved they know how to fight just as much as any UNSC soldier would.

"Right, Weiss." Kat nodded, "Yeah, most Marines call Covenant buggers since their ships tend to remind us of insects from Earth…. And that was before we learned about Drones."

"Drones?"

"Flying, alien bugs," Emile said. "Grabs up marines… and rips them limb from limb."

Ruby had thoughts of killing Drones en masse with Crescent Rose.

It was GLORIOUS.

The grin on her face was actually scaring Noble.

These are SPARTANS, for fuck's sake. _Few_ things scare Spartans.

And a 15 year old girl was scaring _four_ armored super soldiers!

Jun leaned towards Yang. "Your sister is _weird_ ," He muttered. Yang smirked.

"It runs in the family,"

Kat sighed, as she tried the comms "Noble Six, Noble Five, do you copy?" She asked on the Radio. "This is Noble Two - respond, over."

"What's she trying to do?" Blake asked.

"Contact the rest of our team," Carter informed, "Two Spartans went up to kill that carrier… we picked up one of their transponders, but we can't get through to contact her with the interference that Corvette - " He was cut off when he heard the sound of explosions, glancing up just in time to see a swarm of missiles hit against the Corvette - the Covenant vessel began to to spew flames, falling back.

"What are the odds of that being her?" Jun asked with a chuckle.

"Let's see…" Kat said, pulling up the Radio again, "without that Corvette jamming, we might be able to get through… Noble Six, do you copy? Repeat, this is Noble Two. Noble Five, Noble Six, do you copy, over?"

There was static on the other end, " _…this is Six, go ahead Noble Two._ "

Kat sighed in relief. "We picked up your transponder about an hour ago, but couldn't risk open comms with the Corvette overhead - and private comms were being jammed too. Covenant have the city sealed tight, and we're getting nothing from Jorge."

There was a long pause on the comms. " _He—-_ " Six stopped for a moment. " _…He didn't make it._ "

All of Noble Team paused at that thought, everyone bowing their heads. "…Understood." Kat sighed, "What's the situation at Starport Exit?"

" _The last transports are away,_ "

"Alright, we'll bring you to us." Kat said, nodding, "Pop smoke, Pelicans will be on the way… Noble Two out." She turned off the comms, letting out a long, tired sigh. "Dammit… "

"Well… it looks like you four are gonna be stuck with us for a bit longer," Carter said, turning to the girls. "Those were the last transports off Reach probably…"

"Eh," Yang shrugged. "We'll be fine."

And cue MORE worry from Noble. They weren't even concerned.

That meant either they didn't care, they actually thought they were winning or they had something the Spartans didn't know about.

A large explosion in the sky caught their attention. Jun groaned. "There goes another one of ours."

"Explosion was too big." Kat said, eyebrows scrunched in confusion. "That wasn't one of ours. That had to be Covenant." Kat took Jun's SRS-99C and zoomed in to its' maximum magnification, finding a CCS-Class battlecruiser breaking up.

She dropped the weapon in shock. "Kat?" Carter asked warily.

"…One of the Covenant ships in orbit just _exploded_. Cracked in half like they'd crack one of ours. We don't have any superweapons ONI neglected to tell us about, do we?"

Carter shook his head while RWBY shared a knowing look.

The _Ra Cailum_ was beginning to slaughter the poor idiots.

* * *

R'tas could not pray for mercy.

The gods had returned, or so his men believed. They believed the Forerunners had returned and they were judging the covenant for their attacks on humanity.

R'tas could not doubt them for believing this. Their ships, their weapons… they were akin to those of the gods.

So they simply came to the conclusion that the _Ra Cailum_ was the ship of the returning gods.

"Fleetmaster!" R'Tas shouted, turning to Thel, who was still in the middle of barking out orders to the fleet, trying to salvage the situation as best he could. "We cannot hold them off for much longer!"

"I KNOW DAMMIT!" Thel shouted, slamming his fist against the chair's armrest before sighing. "All ships! Fall back - we shall regroup, and attack again!"

An attack both Sangheili knew would be equally as fruitless.

This vessel _Ra Cailum_ was too powerful, their fighters and those… machines were practically invincible, and their weapons were like the hammers of the gods, raining down judgement on the Covenant.

But they knew the Prophets would order them into the fray once more. Gods or not… these beings would soon feel the full wrath of the Covenant.

* * *

Ron let out a snort of laughter from his seat. "These idiots are barely on the same level as 22nd Century Romulans! Granted, humanity ain't much better, but—"

"Sir, before you go into a massive rant," Corpsa interrupted, grinning. "The ship IDed as UNSC _Saratoga_ is hailing us."

Ron chuckled and shrugged. "Well, then. Corpie, put them through."

Corpsa groaned, but did as he asked. " _Ra Cailum_ Actual, your source for death, destruction and pain since May 27th, 2409. How can I help you?"

" _Uhhh…. This is Captain Adrian Drake of the UNSC_ Sara… Saratoga," A voice replied, " _Am… I speaking to the commanding officer of the…_ Ra Cailum _?_ "

"The 'Actual' would imply that, but yes, this is Captain Ronald Pinkerton speaking. Mind if I give you people a hand? Humanitarian aid, house-cleaning—" Another CAS-Class carrier exploded from a photon torpedo slamming into it and hitting the engine core. "—Pest control?"

" _I, umm... Y-yes, we'll be happy to help you,_ Ra Cailum _Actual._ " The Captain said, " _But… do you mind telling me… just who the hell_ are _you people?_ "

"Well, I'd be glad to give you the detailed history of the United Federation of Planets, but right now, just being known as your saviours will do just fine. Mobius Stalker flight, get into the atmosphere and give those people on the ground a hand."

" _Mobius 15, roger._ " 14 _Stalker_ -Class fighters cloaked and dove into the atmosphere, with the rest of Mobius Squadron continuing mop-up duties.

"So, anything else I can help you with? Medical supplies, food, clothing? Diplomatic intervention with these assholes?"

" _I do not believe the Covenant will ever listen to a virtue like reason, Captain._ " Adrian informed, " _Medical help on the ground would be appreciated, but our superiors will probably want to have a… word with you._ "

"You want to get your hands on our technology? Not happening right now. But I'll help you evacuate the planet." He keyed the comm again. "Team RWBY, go loud. Any Covenant forces that refuse to surrender… take them down."

* * *

Ruby grinned, looking at a patrol of Grunts led by an Elite and two Jackal snipers. "Alright, Team RWBY, let's do this!"

Ruby leapt up from her cover, dropping the DMR as she headed towards the aliens. "What the hell are you-" Carter began to shout, before the red-haired fighter drew out another weapon from under her cloak, which then proceeded to extend and transform into a giant _scythe_. She fired the weapon, which sounded like a .50 cal or bigger, at the ground and rocketed towards the Covie patrol in a torpedo of rose petals. "…Huh?"

Weiss drew Myrtenaster, creating a glyph that she used to launch herself into the air before seemingly firing off bolts of lightning at the Grunts, frying some of them.

Blake had disappeared, then reappeared, hacking a Jackal in half before taking his beam rifle and firing a round into the other sniper's head while Yang… _punched_ the Elite in the _face…_ sending it flying back as if it were hit by a _truck_.

"…we… all just saw that, right?" Emile asked, tilting his head in confusion.

"Yes… we did…" Jun nodded dumbly.

Carter shook his head. "Kinda wish I hadn't." It made no sense. What the fuck was going on here?

The team quickly slaughtered the Covenant, much faster than any Spartan.

Even the legendary Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 and Noble Six, called 'hyperlethal vectors', would have taken a full _minute_ to kill them. This took a fraction of that.

While using MAGIC!

 _None_ of this seemed physically possible.

"Aliens… Magic… what's fucking next?" Kat muttered.

A Banshee tried to attack RWBY, but it was hit by a blue bolt, seemingly originating from nowhere.

"…Kat?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Shut the fuck up."

* * *

A Warthog, a captured Ghost, and a modified M808V Scorpion cruised down New Alexandria's main street, crushing anything it ran into.

"Okay, so we just need to keep it slow and steady, pull up to the club, and we-"

"Tucker!" One of the soldiers wearing modified MJOLNIR V armor shouted, "We are not using the fucking tank to pick up girls! Where would we even find any! The whole damn city has been evacuated!"

"Church, I _know_ where to find the ladies," The passenger said, wearing teal-colored armor. "Or more like they can find me! Bow chika bow wow!"

"…Can I have my peanuts now?" Leonard H Church, leader of Blue Team, screamed. Tucker was a womanizing think-with-ma-dick moron, Caboose was just an idiot, Kaikaina Grif was a slut who might not have had a brain in her head and DuFraine… Doc was bipolar.

And that wasn't counting the Reds, who drove in their Warthog ahead of them. Sarge was a domineering hardass, Richard Simmons was a kissass, Dexter Grif was lazy as fuck, Donut was a closet gay and Lopez refused to speak anything but Spanish. Though that was mostly because Sarge fucked up with his voice box or some shit.

Then of course there was the woman in pitch black armor in the Ghost following behind them. Tex.

He… shouldn't really talk shit about her. Hell the _authors_ won't even talk shit about her.

Well, except for Ron, but we all know he's fucking nuts.

"GAAAH! VOICES!" Caboose shouted randomly, "NO ONE IS TALKING BUT THERE ARE VOICES!"

"Shut the fuck up Caboose," Church groaned.

"Sarge, shit's exploding in midair." Grif pointed out, looking up, while still driving the Warthog. For all his laziness, he was still a good driver. "And nothing's there to make the Covenant blow up. Can we go home?"

"Hell no, Grif! As soldiers of the Red Army, we have to keep fighting until the bitter end! The bitter end of our enemies!"

"Well said, sir!"

Church groaned as a Banshee exploded in midair. Something was going on. And it wasn't ONI.

ONI actually had to have brains for this.

Instead, they turned a group of morons… into Spartans.

It used to be so simple, living in that box canyon in the middle of nowhere - then suddenly both Blue and Red command called, telling them about some stupid truce to fight 'the aliens'. Next thing they knew they were getting picked up, and dropped off at Command where they underwent some medical bullshit which according to the doctors turned them into 'Pseudo Spartans'. Sarge thought that meant he was strong enough to beat Tex.

Who proceeded to kick Sarge's ass across the base.

Idiots as usual.

A thud was heard as something landed on their tank. A figure in MJOLNIR-Vb armor.

A female in MJOLNIR armor.

"Hey, Church! We picked up a chick in the tank!"

Church counted down before Tucker got punched in the balls.

"Idiots. And you call yourselves Spartans?"

"Actually, lady, we were NICE and happy with being in a box canyon until ONI fucked with us. The fuck are you?"

"SPARTAN-B312 - _Lieutenant_ ," she growled. "Now my ride got shot down, so _you_ are gonna help me get back to the rest of my squad!"

Church screamed. "FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"

Thankfully, he was about to get help. From an unexpected source. A Covenant Banshee crashed into the ground, missing the port wing and the life of it's pilot. A blue fighter decloaked, looping before Longswords chased after it.

"What the?" Came the reply from everyone on the ground. "What just happened?"

" _This is Mobius 15, assigned to Mobius Squadron: anyone on the ground need a hand?_ " A voice spoke over an open comm frequency.

"This is Noble Six: Mobius 15, are you ONI?"

 _"ONI? Well, my captain can be called one, but we're not with your government. We're Starfleet."_

Six frowned beneath her helmet. "Starfleet? Nevermind. UNSC Longswords, break off from your attack!"

" _But that's a alien-"_

"I just watched it shoot down a Banshee and shrug off a fuel rod blast!" Six retorted. "Break off! They're not our enemies."

 _"Copy that_." The two craft broke off from the much smaller vessel.

" _Thanks. The bullets were getting annoying. Stalker flight, aid the UNSC fighters. Get the civilians to evac points, Noble. Mobius out._ "

"Keep those skies clear…" Six said sighing, "I liked it better when things were less complicated…"

"You and me both," Church grumbled.

* * *

Carter preferred it when they were losing.

At least then they UNDERSTOOD why they were losing.

Now that they were winning, they barely understood HOW.

The rest of Noble gave up trying to figure out the mysterious Team RWBY. "I'm done. After this, I'm taking up a desk job."

"Seriously?"

Carter gestured to RWBY, as their leader hacked a Brute in half with her scythe/rifle thing while Blake took a Brute shot and a spiker (one hand each!) and shot the poor bastards to hell.

"I'm watching four teenage girls slaughter a company of Covenant troops that would've taken five airstrikes, two tanks and a squad of Spartans, not to mention two companies of Marines. THIS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. I liked it when we were LOSING. At least THAT MADE SENSE!"

Jun had to agree with that.

Suddenly there was another explosion in the distance, bringing a moment of pause into the battle - as a Wraith Tank exploded - the culprit being none other than a Scorpion tank strolling down the street with a Warthog and a Ghost with a Spartan on it came down the street.

"Nice shot, Shela! Now get the other one!"

" _Firing Main Cannon._ "

 _SHUNK_

 _KABLAM!_

Carter looked at the 'Spartans', who acted more like Marines than Spartans.

ONI had a field day with the Spartan-III data and made these idiots, it seemed. Thankfully, they had one redeeming feature.

They had Noble's last member.

"Six! Goddamn, you are a sight for sore eyes!"Carter exclaimed. "At least with YOU, things make sense again!"

Sayane looked at Team RWBY, who continued to slaughter the poor Covenant bastards. "…What the fuck."

"Our reactions, too…" Carter sighed. "We found them thinking they were Civies… and then…" He glanced over where Ruby sliced in half a Hunter with her scythe. "… _that_ happened… "

One of the Spartans jumped off the tank, said something that none of the others heard to Blake, who kicked the teal-colored moron in the balls hard enough to actually hurt him before Yang slammed her fist into his face, _breaking_ his helmet.

Note that titanium-A is more durable than normal titanium. And Yang's fist destroyed a reinforced and SHIELDED helmet.

Granted, it did its' job and saved Tucker from dying, but _seriously_.

"…I think these people are linked to what's happening with those fighters and with what's going on in orbit."

"No shit, Six."

* * *

"It's a bombrun day, it's the naval way! A blood-red sun is on the rise!"

Ron sung along to the classic Sabaton song Midway, much to the entertainment of his crew.

"Ok, ok, sir, the assholes are running. Fleeing, actually. They're _screaming_ in fear."

" _HAH! Mobile Suits 1, big-ass ships Zero!_ " Jaden shouted, as the Mobile suit division continued to kick the Covenant forces out the door. " _Keep on running assholes! I'll just shoot you up your asses!_ "

"Open a channel to the _Saratoga_. It's time we introduced ourselves fully to our new friends. Recall all MS teams and put Mobius on a BarCAP."

"Aye, sir."

"And for fuck's sake, someone stop making those photoshopped pictures of Jaden that has him as a girl hugging me."

"I'll do my best sir," Cassie said, though hiding her smirk as she closed a file filled with several pictures of a genderbent MS pilot.

* * *

Drake was dumbstruck. They won.

The Covenant were RUNNING.

They were running! Fleeing from the area! That _single_ ship had wiped the floor with the alien bastards!

As the last Covenant ship disappeared into slipstream, history recorded the first ever rout of Covenant forces.

There was a moment of silence as crew processed that, then the bridge exploded into celebration. People hugged, cried tears of joy, or jumped for the ceiling, all thoughts of decorum momentarily forgotten. Drake himself leaned back in his chair in shock.

"…I feel weird. Is this what total victory feels like, Andraste?"

" _I'm not sure. I feel as though we haven't seen the end of the fall of Reach, though, sir._ " Beeping came from the comm. " _Incoming hail from the_ Ra Cailum _, sir._ "

"Alright people, quiet down. Put it through," the captain replied.

The closest screen showed the image of a main in a uniform unlike that of the UNSC, sitting in a chair. " _Captain, I hope our performance was satisfactory. My crew hasn't had anything like THAT to deal with in over 8 months. Fucking shooting gallery._ "

"I… see…" Adrian said, before he sighed. "But either way, Captain… we all owe you a debt of gratitude… you may have saved a lot of lives today, Captain."

" _Lovely! Now, I'm going to bring the_ Ra Cailum _in for a docking run. I'd like to come on board and have a talk. Besides, I have someone on board that you might want back. See you in a few minutes!_ " The call ended.

"…the hell is that supposed to mean?" Adrian asked, to which Andraste shrugged.

* * *

 **117Jorn: Their destruction is the will of the Authors, and Ron is our instrument.**

 **Ron the True Fan: That is so fitting, it scares me.**

 **Ruby: Yes, it does. But I like it!**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yep. And so we've managed to drive the Covenant off while fully saving Noble Team.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Yup. Everyone's alive! WOOP!**

 **117Jorn: But will Reach still fall? What changes might the arrival of the _Ra Cailum_ bring? Find out next time, on the next rendition of STAR TREK ODYSSEY! **

**Yang: Fuck yeah!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	24. Chapter 24

**Reach Orbit**

 **UNSC _Saratoga_**

* * *

The UNSC did not waste the time that the _Ra Cailum_ had given them, as they redoubled their efforts to evacuate the planet's civilian population as quickly as possible as well as other critical assets before the Covenant returned to finish what they started. While much of the defense fleet was smashed by the Covenant, they still maintained a number of functioning Super-MAC Guns, plus the Supercarrier _Trafalgar_ was still alive and kicking alongside whatever other ships were present.

While main bulk of these UNSC ships remained close to the MAC's, the _Saratoga_ and her battlegroup were ordered to 'stay close' to the _Ra Cailum_ , to ensure that they wouldn't leave until the ONI envoy arrived to speak with this 'Starfleet', though Adrian believed that there was nothing the _whole_ UNSC or Covenant could do to keep them from leaving when they want to. Let alone his _Paris_ -class Heavy Frigate, the _Charon_ -class Light Frigate _Providence_ , the _Halberd_ -class Destroyer _Jericho_ , and even the refit _Halcyon_ -class Cruiser _Dawn under Heaven_.

Even with all these ships, compared to the _Ra Cailum_? They were ants.

In less than 30 minutes, they had destroyed over 150 Covenant warships, including CCS-Class battlecruisers, CAS-Class assault carriers and even destroyed a supercarrier. Granted, some of those kills belonged to those… humanoid machines, but where they lacked the firepower, the _Ra Cailum_ assisted.

The UNSC forces here were _never_ going to beat this monster of a ship. Even though it was a _fraction_ the size of the _Dawn Under Heaven_ at one-sixth the mass…

But clearly, it was a super-heavyweight. One torpedo destroyed an assault carrier when it would have taken an entire UNSC battlegroup to do the job.

And that wasn't counting its' escorts. Drake watched the _Firestorm_ come alongside. It was TINY, but that one ship destroyed _five_ CCS battlecruisers using its' energy cannons.

Drake knew death when he saw it. And while they had the grey hulls and english lettering of the UNSC ships, they had the alien curves of the Covenant, too. The best of both worlds.

"Sir, the _Ra Cailum_ has granted us permission to dock and has requested to send over engineering crews to assist in our repairs." A civilian crewman at comms reported; the ship was low on crew, they needed all the help they could get

"Like we could stop them. That ship's weapons could kill us; their marines probably have man-sized versions. Just grant them permission. We could use the help."

* * *

"I've got half of our shuttles and 8 Mobile Suits out there, picking the debris clean. Did you know most of the shit those ships are made of is polytrinic alloy? I thought only the Borg used that shit in excess!"

Jaden could really care less. He had proved mobile suits were the weapon of the future yet again. So what if their ships were made of Borg alloys? They got the shit kicked out of them.

"As long as we can destroy it, that's all that matters." Jaden said, glancing at Sonja as she inspected some of the armor. "Though let's just thank the fact these guys definitely _aren't_ Borg."

"Yes, then we'd've been fucked. These things might have upgrades that are on par with 22rd Century Klingons and Romulans, but they're a LONG way from being truly dangerous to the Borg. But that's what R&D is for."

The pair passed by an airlock where a swarm of engineers were waiting, Sonja joining them. "Go talk to Nena: I've got work to do on the _Saratoga_. Hell, go talk to Ron."

"Stop teasing me about it."

"About your attraction to crazy?" She grinned evilly. "NEVER."

The airlock doors opened, allowing two UNSC marines and a uniformed officer to exit. "You must be the guy representing the UNSC forces. I'm Sonja Henderson. Welcome aboard the _Ra Cailum_ , mister…?"

"Lieutenant Halvey, Office of Naval Intelligence," the man informed. "Pleasure to be onboard Miss Henderson."

"Commander. Captain Pinkerton's on the bridge. Follow the lighting to a turbolift and it'll take you straight there. If you'll excuse me, I've got repairs on one of your ships to do." The marines and Halvey stepped aside, chuckling.

No escort? Pathetic.

He tapped his earpiece. "Dr. Halsey, can you hear me?"

" _Yes, Lieutenant, I can hear you. I presume you're on board the_ Ra Cailum _now?"_

"Yes. I'll find you an exposed datapoint where you and that AI can start hacking in."

They needed everything this ship had to offer: shields, weapons, whatever they could get.

And maybe something extra, like genetically targeted viruses.

Halvey followed the lights before he came to a double door, then peeked inside.

' _Bingo.'_ An unoccupied console.

He removed a panel, seeing a multitude of electronics he didn't understand.

But that was something the UNSC was used to.

* * *

 **Reach, CASTLE base**

* * *

Halsey sighed slightly, as she awaited for the link-up from the ONI operative and the _Ra Cailum_. "Dr. Halsey, do you really think this plan will work?"

The Doctor glanced at the AI Kalmiya, otherwise known as Cortana's 'Sister' in a sense. "In all likelihood… probably not," She said, taking a sip of Coffee. "Their technology is far more advanced than the Covenant. We may get lucky and get something small that may tip the balance in our favor, but I don't have high hopes for it."

She leaned back in her chair. "But… we need to try at least," She said, "I doubt they'll help us anymore than they already have… if our positions were reversed, I doubt we'd be so willing to just give away technology."

" _Yes, Doctor._ "

Halsey sighed, looking at the images of the vessel which may have saved Reach. It did comfort her, however the fact that it was crewed seemingly predominantly by humans, so she knew what she _might_ expect from them. If nothing else, their presence did something just as important as any technological breakthroughs they _could_ uncover from them:

It bought them time. Time to continue work on Dr. Sorvad's LATCHKEY discovery, precious time humanity needed in order to survive the Covenant.

* * *

Mitod was amused. They were trying to hack in.

Well, two could play at THAT game.

And Mitod WAS an Orion.

"Love, what are you doing?" Matt asked, looking over her shoulder.

She looked at her boyfriend, grinning. "Doing what the captain would do, as he's busy. Trolling."

The VI's voice then droned silently: "Uploading 45 teraquads of prohibited material into UNSC database. Please standby."

"45 teraquads? Of what?"

"Porn."

Matt couldn't help but laugh.

That was a LOT of porn.

* * *

 **Earth, Geneva, 2552**

* * *

The UNSC's homeworld was surrounded by dozens of warships, including the powerful _Marathon_ -Class heavy cruiser.

But Lord Terrence Hood looked at the footage sent back by an ONI prowler, seeing a ship that would, could and DID slaughter hundreds of Covenant warships almost singlehandedly.

And its' name was _Ra Cailum_.

"We need this. We need her on our side."

Hood sighed. "But how?" He asked. "There's probably nothing we can offer them. But doesn't mean we can try. Compile a list of things we can offer, _anything,_ classified or not, and send it to Vice Admiral Whitcomb." One of the other admirals got to it, with no protest. After all, the Lord of Admiral's word was _law._ "What about salvage operations in the Covenant fleet?"

"Most of the fleet was obliterated, but there are the pieces of the supercarrier that landed on Reach, and several smaller ships were disabled by venting their atmo. We're moving as fast as we can."

"According to ONI, the _Ra Cailum_ is salvaging the destroyed wreckage. Something about more materials."

"Send a ship as soon as possible. We NEED this ship on our side."

* * *

 **High Charity - Holy City of the Prophets, 4th Age of Reclamation**

* * *

Thel Vadamee's failure was shameful, but it wasn't his fault.

That ship, the one that destroyed them, the _Ra Cailum_ , just overpowered their forces. They were _fucked_ once that ship had decloaked.

"This is a disaster." Mercy complained. "Never before, in the history of the Covenant, have we ever been _defeated!_ "

"Then do not look at this as a defeat," Regret informed, "Simply a… tactical withdrawal. All we must do is commit more ships into the second wave - a single ship cannot hope to survive the full might of the Covenant."

"But the warriors think-"

"These beings are no Gods," Truth spoke up, voice quiet, but deadly. "The ship has _human_ markings, _human_ names. At the _very_ most, it is a vessel the heathens took from the Gods for their own use. If we cannot capture it, to remove their taint… it must be destroyed."

"Destroy it? We could not touch it! That vessel was built by the gods and makes all but the Holy Rings pale in comparison!"

And while they had not found Halo, they knew it existed. They had to hope. And now the humans were so close to destroying their Covenant with that ship: the Elites were divided due to the events at the human world Reach.

They began to believe that these _were_ the gods. That they had decided to return and defend their 'true chosen ones', the humans.

The Forerunners were gone, this the High Prophets knew. Sadly, telling the rest wasn't happening.

"What about the Dreadnought?" Mercy proposed, referring to the Forerunner Dreadnought that protected High Charity.

Truth shook his head. "No, we shouldn't risk our greatest asset. Throw numbers at that ship, ram it if we need too, but we shall not risk the Keyship." Truth had his own plans for the Keyship, and he would not waste it on a useless venture.

Not against a ship that could destroy the dreadnought.

* * *

 **Reach orbit - USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

"45 teraquads. Of _PORN_. GODDAMN, I love my crew!"

The ONI personnel had left, though Ron had 'requested' access to Kaimaya, as he was entertained by their primitive AI. Halsey was incensed at that. Ron enjoyed her outraged expression.

But that was nothing compared to what was going to happen in the next five minutes, as Jorge, wearing his armor and escorted by Rutia. Noble Team was going to be coordinating relief efforts and Ron figured he'd send them a message that they owed him and his crew for saving Jorge.

"How you feeling?" Rutia asked.

The Spartan rolled his shoulder. "Better than I've felt… ever. What'd you do?"

"I'm a doctor. It's what I do." The pair walked onto the transporter pad, Rutia having to make Jorge turn around to beam down properly.

People kept making that mistake.

"Energize."

"Noble, this is _Ra Cailum_ : Standby for beaming."

* * *

Carter and Kat looked at one another. "Beaming?"

A sound made them turn their heads as a shower of blue sparks appeared out of nowhere. Slowly, a humanoid form started to resolve itself out of the shower, and to all of Noble's shock, resolved itself into Jorge.

"JORGE!"

The Spartan was bowled over from behind by Noble Six, who looked torn between hugging him and beating the crap out of him.

"IDONTEVENKNOWHOWYOUAREALIVEBUTDONTEVERDOTHATAGAIN!" She yelled, whacking the Spartan-II on the back of the head. Repeatedly. Like, Ruby speed levels of whacking. "ISHOULDSHOVEYOURDOGTAGSDOWNYOURTHROAT!"

"Six, RELAX. The _Ra Cailum_ did that… thing. I have no idea how it works."

"Transporters are literally the safest way to travel."

The Spartans looked at the other one that beamed down with him, who wore a black and blue uniform with spots running down both sides of her head. "And who are you?"

"Commander Rutia Yulanra, CMO, USS _Ra Cailum_. I'm literally the best doctor in the entire fucking universe. So, who do I talk to about relief supplies and where they need to go?"

"Over here Commander." Mark called out, pointing towards a refugee camp and convoy.

"Good."

"Doctor, it's not that we're not grateful—"

"Then let me do my job and get the fuck out of my way. I might not be my FIRST host, but I still know how to kill an armored target. Out of my way."

Carter actually flinched - stepping out of the way of Rutia.

"FIRST host?"

"I get the feeling that that ship's crew is like the Covenant… but worse." The Covenant was a collective of races.

Rutia wasn't human. That was clear. But how many members of the crew weren't?

* * *

Halsey was tempted to laugh out loud.

The _Ra Cailum's_ database was filled with porn!

Or at least they used it to screw with ONI. Either way, this proved that if they wanted to fight the Starfleet superdreadnought via cyberwarfare, the _Ra Cailum_ would kick their asses just as easily as they would in actual combat.

She had assumed that this would be the outcome… she just didn't expect the commanding officers of a highly sophisticated starship to be fond of… well… _trolling_. As amusing as it was as she could already imagine the people within ONI scratching their heads in confusion as to how they _only_ managed to acquire the ship's _porn stash_.

Well, it wasn't a _complete_ loss however, Kalmaiya managed to also download historical documents which weren't really under any guard - she assumed it was the one thing they were willing to share with them since it bore no technological advancements. She briefly read over it, and admitted she was rather envious of Starfleet and their Federation. They were lucky enough to have peaceful first contact with an alien civilization, and from there they spent the next several hundred years expanding out into space. Meeting a myriad of other races in the 'Alpha Quadrant'.

That also seemed to be the one advantage they seemed to hold over Starfleet. While their 'warp drives' were quite advanced, from what the historical records showed even their fastest drives traveling at Warp 9.999999 were fairly limited, and took a lifetime to travel from one side of the galaxy to the next - where for the UNSC a Slipspace drive was capable of more long-distance travel at much less time. Though they did possess 'quantum slipstream', reports indicated that it was at times unreliable and dangerous.

But in every other field - weapons, shields, stealth, sensors, even these 'transporters' - they made the UNSC AND the Covenant look pathetic. They barely mastered _shields_ with the new Mk V MJOLNIR. The Starfleet people seemingly had superior shielding that absorbed kinetic and energy equally well without armor.

And that was with one ship. Apparently, Starfleet had thousands.

All in all, Halsey was happy that she would never see the bulk of the UFP starfleet.

And while that was also professional, personally, she didn't want Jacob Keyes or their daughter Miranda (even if Miranda hated her) engaging the Federation's sword and shield.

Though part of her did wonder if Starfleet would have been able to put an end to this current war with the Covenant, if they had more than one ship in this universe.

She had to stop thinking about that. The Starfleet ships were leaving in a matter of days once reinforcements arrived from earth.

"Thinking about how to get our help, Doctor?"

Halsey jumped, spinning around. Standing there like he _wasn't_ standing in one of ONI's most secure bases, was a black-haired, red eyed man.

"Who are you and how did you get down here?"

"The _Ra Cailum's_ sensors picked up a base and I decided to pay a visit." He said with a shrug, glancing at a device in his hand. "Now… Doctor Catherine Halsey… MD and PhD and 'mother' of the Spartan program as well as the creator of MJOLNIR power armor. Just so you know, Ron HATES you. He compares you to the Borg for what you did to Jorge and the other Spartans and REALLY wants to kill you. But he's got bigger problems, so you get a free pass. For now. Seriously, datamining the _Ra Cailum's_ database for weapons and tech data? Even I was smarter then that: I started with history!"

"When you are facing a genocidal race out to kill every single one of your kind, you look for ways to improve your chances." Halsey sighed, turning back to her console. "I admit, I made the Spartans before the Covenant ever appeared, but their presence has held back the tide. I do indeed regret what I did, and I will live with it for the rest of my life."

"Well, nothing I can do to change history, though the _Ra Cailum_ probably could: that ship's got technology that makes ours and yours look pathetic." Jaden chuckled a bit "They can travel through time if they wanted to."

"'Ours and yours'? You're not with Starfleet?"

He shrugged. "Kinda-sorta. I'm from another universe that the _Ra Cailum_ visited. And while we had some of an edge… That ship is the unstoppable object. And there has never been anything immovable for it to run into. The Klingons, the Romulans, the shit in the Delta Quadrant, even the Iconians couldn't take that thing out."

Halsey hmmed. Alien races that fought and lost against the superdreadnought back in its' home universe, it seemed. "Were you forced to work for them?"

Jaden shook his head. "Oh no. The ship's government doesn't roll like that. We came along of our own accord."

Halsey noted that before shaking her head. "They won't help us." She said, "I do have access to most of their regulations. General Order One: A Starfleet officer will not interfere in the affairs of another civilization or government without the consent of the government and the unanimous support of the Supreme Council of the United Federation of Planets and its' President while interference in the development of a non-spacefaring society is absolutely forbidden."

"…That was word for word. More of the time, it's abridged."

"I remember everything I read, mister…?"

"Jaden Takeo, commander of the _Morningstar._ "

"Nice to meet you. It still doesn't solve our problem."

Jaden produced a UNSC-grade datadisk. "This will. The _Morningstar's_ a Starfleet ship, but hasn't been given a formal commission yet and I'm not a Starfleet officer yet, either. And the other organizations that joined us… they haven't taken an oath to uphold the Prime Directive, either." He handed the disk to her. "This has all of the data on technology taken from ADVENT, an alien puppet government in another universe, as well as their alien masters' plasma technology. XCOM data, too: MEC robotics, SPARKs and more. And a few samples of the tech, which 'haven't' been transported to your home here on Reach."

Halsey's eyes widened. "Kalmaiya, confirm that!"

" _Confirmed, doctor. Several unknown devices were transported into your lab_."

Halsey sat down as she realized she had been _gifted_ the largest research and intelligence grab of the war, and it was sitting next door.

"Why?"

"Because you need help and while Ron is bound by the Prime Directive, I'm not. He personally hates you for what you did to the Spartans, but he knows humanity needs you. So you get technology he picked up along the way that isn't Starfleet. Just promise me to use it right. Because if you don't, I'll send Ron after you."

"You admire him." Jaden froze. "You're attracted to him from the way you mention him in such high regard, yet you appear to be attracted to women as well."

Jaden groaned and facepalmed. "Goddamn it, WHY does everyone think I'm gay for him?"

"Gay, no, but certainly confused."

"Fine, the man's crazy, but in a GOOD way. And I'm drawn to crazy. He is THE craziest thing I've run into and if I were a girl, I'd be on his arm all the time! Happy?"

Halsey cracked a patient smile. "Oh, I'm more than happy. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to start delving into this tech."

"Have a good day, Doctor." Jaden said, tapping something on his chest before he vanished.

* * *

 **USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

"Subspace vortexes opening. UNSC vessels detected." Corpsa looked at the large number of contacts. "That's a lot of ships."

"So… what are our odds?" Jaden asked, having returned to the bridge.

"Normally I would say we'd rinse them… but we haven't manufactured any more Torpedoes," Ron informed, "So that puts us in a bit of a… predicament… "

"So we need to leave?"

"Not just yet," Ron said, "We've still got people on the ground… Sonja's helping breathe life into some old colony ship on the surface to evacuate some more civilians. Captain Drake has organized the ships he commands around the area and is prepared to defend the zone until that ship is spaceworthy. The UNSC also sent us some giant refit station."

Jaden blinked "Why?"

"Probably to use as an emergency shield," Ron shrugged. "Doesn't matter, but situation still stands: we're evacuating as many people as we can, and then we are getting the hell out of here."

Corpsa began giggling. "Idiots."

"What? More hacking attempts?"

"Nope. A stealth ship, if you can call it that, just buzzed us. And… I think I picked up a data transmission from the _Ra Cailum_ to it."

Ron growled. "Find those ONI cockbites and put them in the brig. And get a tractor beam on that fucking prowler. They decided to fuck with me. Time to show them what happens."

* * *

The prowler's captain thought he could buzz the superior SD and get away with it.

He was wrong. Suddenly their ship lurched forward, knocking them off-balance - and before he could even ask for a status report… the next thing he knew, he was in a completely different room.

"…What the hell?!" The Captain shouted, looking around in confusion.

" _You done goofed, Spook._ " A voice said, before another person appeared on the other side of the room. " _This is what happens when you fuck with the_ Ra Cailum."

"I was doing my job!"

"Your job just resulted in you getting screwed."

* * *

 **Stealth corvette UNSC _James Cromwell_**

* * *

"We just lost the prowler."

"They can keep the damn thing. We got the databurst." The ONI operatives began pouring over it, seeing data pertaining to the great secret of the _Ra Cailum's_ strange form.

Warp drive.

They had data on warp drive!

Granted, slipspace was faster, but it was useless outside of long-distance travel. Warp drive, meanwhile… it was tactically viable. This was as great a discovery since Cole and Keyes' tactical asskickery! This would give them the ability to make blitzkrieg attacks in-system!

Encased in the data was a message, though: 'for the preservation of the most precious thing: TID Agent MSI'.

The operative had no idea what 'TID' or 'Agent MSI' was, only a message prior to expect them. And whoever this agent was, they may of provided the UNSC with the key to winning the war against the Covenant…

…and more, it would seem. Deeper within the files, they saw schematics for something else. Something which seemed similar to Slipspace, but… different. Either way, this tech would be an important boon for the UNSC and mankind in general.

"Get the data sent back to the _Mother of Invention_ ," The Captain informed, "The Director will be most interested in our findings."

* * *

"What did they get?"

"The prowler didn't have the information for long: they bounced the signal off five ships and a ship just slipped out of system. But they've got some data on warp drive and I see hints of the dilithium recrystalization chamber we use for the wormhole dilithium."

Ron snarled. "You're telling me someone _gave_ them our data on the wormhole drive?!"

Sonja nodded.

"New girl! Mari!"

The glasses-wearing engineer skipped over. "Yo!"

"Secure the computers. Make sure this doesn't happen again."

"I don't know if that's exactly possible, boss," Takeshi remarked. "Rina managed to catch a few remaining fragments of data on whatever got sent, and… it seems the data burst was sent by a TID agent, whatever that means."

"Temporal Integrity Department."

Takeshi groaned. "Time travel?! Seriously?!"

"Yes. We have a temporal agent on board. Meaning I _actually_ have to let this go!" Ron slammed on a button on the armrest of his chair, opening a comm line to Sonja."How long until the _St. Elizabeth_ is ready, Sonja?"

" _Almost! Engines are almost ready, but I'd like shields just in case!"_

"Get it done with the speed of Scotty!"

 _"You HAD to mention the patron god of engineers, didn't you?"_

Ron cackled before leaving main engineering.

* * *

 **UNSC _St. Elizabeth_**

* * *

"He had to mention Scotty. He HAD to mention Scotty!"

Scotty was god. A LIVING god of engineering. In fact, he was _still_ alive because of something he _juryrigged_! THAT was how badass Scotty is!

"Um." One of the UNSC engineers spoke up timidly. "Who's Scotty?"

Sonja chuckled lowly. "The best engineer to ever live, in any universe, ever."

The ship was in good shape. She scavenged a shield generator from a CCS-Class BC before installing it in the ship, as well as most of the salvaged power drives. The ship was ready to fly.

At least in theory: she'd rather test the shit out of everything first.

Sadly, this was the _Ra Cailum._

Time was _never_ on their side.

* * *

 ** _Ascendant Justice_**

* * *

He had to marshall a fleet twice the size of the last to have a CHANCE at victory.

After all, he LOST most of the last one to the _Ra Cailum_ and the rest of them to the OTHER shit they brought along.

So screw this: he was going to Zerg rush their asses, not that he knew he was doing that.

"All ships, we must strike down this vessel!" Thel declared. "The humans have defiled a holy place and we must purge it!"

The elites roared. It was time to destroy the _Ra Cailum_.

* * *

"MASSIVE subspace distortions. I think the Covenant is back."

Ron sighed. "Well then. All hands, you know the drill. Stand to battlestations." Alarms began to blare, Ron sitting back in his chair.

This was the calm before the raping.

* * *

Noble, who had wanted to see the _Ra Cailum's_ inside, almost jumped at the alarms. "What's going on?"

Rutia, escorting them, rolled her eyes. "Battle stations. I'll be in sickbay."

Jorge placed a hand on her shoulder. "Would you mind an escort, Doctor?"

"I believe I'll be fine, Jorge." Rutia said, smiling. "Your team needs you more, knowing the Captain he'll need help defending the evac site of that colony ship."

She ran off, Noble STARING at Jorge. "What?"

"Were you pulling the whole 'knight in armor' thing?"

"And what if I was?" The Spartan-II walked off, leaving his team in shock. He was _flirting_ with the doctor.

Jorge was a Spartan-II: they couldn't flirt! They barely understood what it was to be HUMAN, with all the crap that happened to them!

* * *

" _Sonja, the Covies are here! You need to take off_ NOW!"

The Chief engineer snarled. "Copy that! Alright people, status report!"

"Reactors at eighty percent and rising!"

"Environmental controls ready!"

"Shields online!"

"Engines ready!"

The woman nodded. "Alright. All hands, brace for takeoff!" Sonja laid her hands on the console before her and brought the engines up.

Long-dormant engines came to life once again, shaking it's old berth.

"Thrust is steady!"

"Good! Release docking clamps!"

With a _thunk_ , the clamps released. The _Elizabeth_ dropped several meters before her engines caught her, and with a roar, started pushing her out of the gravity well.

The backwash from the engines burned away the rear of the berth as she rose, and the _Elizabeth_ was clear.

"Cutting engines to full… Now!"

The colony ship shot forward, pushing hard for the black.

* * *

Ron looked at the fleet. "700 ships. We _pissed_ them off. And there's no way in fuck these ships can escape back to Earth. Mitod, how far can we stretch the warp field until the nacelles say 'no more'?"

"You're not seriously considering—"

"I'm not leaving these people to die! _How far_?!"

The Orion flinched. "It's gonna be tight, even with _Firestorm, Morningstar,_ and _Khepri_ supplementing the field!"

"Well, then you and Sonja are going to have fun refitting a few of those ships with warp drive next 'verse. Hail the _Saratoga_!"

* * *

"You want to take us with you?"

" _The religious fucks have faster engines then you do. You'll never escape. Your only hope is to hop universes with us_."

Captain Drake sighed, but he knew the Captain was right - they were dead if they stayed, Reach was already doomed. They only had one option now: retreat. "We'll follow your lead then." He said, "All ships, remain in formation with the _Ra Cailum_! Have the UNSC _Reboot_ follow with us in formation! The moment the _St. Elizabeth_ arrives we're getting out of here!"

700 covenant ships… He hoped he would never see such a force ever again, even _if_ the _Ra Cailum_ could defeat it.

Or most of it. There was just so many…

"All ships, enter formation with the _Ra Cailum_! Cole Protocol… Beta!" He made it up, but they were jumping universes: Cole Protocol fit.

The _Saratoga_ flew just under the superdreadnought, joined by the other UNSC ships and the mobile dock. "Where's the _St Elizabeth_?"

"She's close!"

A CAS swooped in to ram the superdread, but was cored by a Super-MAC round from one of the few remaining ODPs.

"All ships, stand by for warp jump!" The colony ship finally made it into formation, the crew from the ODP beaming to the _Ra Cailum_ before the ship's warp nacelles flashed and all of them jumped to FTL - and shortly after, hopping universes as well - leaving a doomed Reach behind them, but not before a single ship managed to escape the hellfire as well, making it into Slipspace.

That ship being… the _Pillar of Autumn_.

* * *

Weeks later, the Light Cruiser managed to drop out of Slipspace, before a massive gas giant.

"Cortana, all I need to know is did we lose them?"

"I think we both know the answer to that."

The _Pillar of Autumn_ slowly flew forward, across the gas giant of Threshold… before coming across an odd sight ahead… a massive, metallic ring, floating in space between the Giant and the moon…

* * *

 **117Jorn: *Begins singing the Halo Combat Evolved theme***

 **Ruby: Oooooh… I want one.**

 **Ron the True Fan: No. No you do not.**

 **Weiss: This is Ruby we're talking about.**

 **Blake: The Flood.**

 **Yang: Ruby would destroy them just being NEAR them!**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Personally, I wonder what would happen in a fight between the Flood and Captain Pinkerton… not that we're going to get that fight right now.**

 **117Jorn: Give it time… anyways, that's it for the Halo verse for now, so what might the next universe… be… *hears the sound of meteors* The hell is that? *Looks out a window where green lights are seen* …Aw, FUCK!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Well… fun times. Ladies?**

 **RWBY: Yeah?**

 **Ron the True Fan: Prepare for war.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: And the enemy unknown.**

 **Ja ne!**


	25. Chapter 25

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

The newly-formed fleet dropped out of the wormhole, and the _Ra Cailum_ slowed to a halt.

"Let's not do the wormhole thing under fire again. Sector scan, please: I'd like to know our location."

"One moment…" Corpsa said, looked at the sensors. "…Good news, we're at Earth. Bad news…"

"…No ESD?"

"Sorry Captain - another dud." Corpsa shook her head, "Looks like Earth in the early 21st Century. "

"FUCK! Set a course for Mars and cloak the ship: expand the field to the entire fleet! We _cannot_ let them see these ships!" The Prime Directive was in full swing.

Riza turned the ship, the fleet following suit.

Then another alarm went off. "I'm picking up a ship in orbit."

"It's probably a shuttle."

"No, it's… a saucer."

Ron's head slowly turned to the andorian officer like the eye of Medusa. Thankfully, he was more merciful. If you could call a slow, painful mental death merciful. "What."

"It's… a Saucer," Corpsa repeated. "It's… of a similar make to the ones ADVENT used, but… different."

"…call up Shen," Ron ordered, "We better not have made a fucking loop-around…"

* * *

"That's not an ADVENT one. Similar, but we've boarded a few to know. It's one from the invasion."

"The second invasion."

Everyone looked at Ron. "I jacked into another Avatar before it died. They tried another invasion, led by another proxy. They failed because one of their own actually sided against them. XCOM, or the organization that became XCOM, stopped them. Round two." Ron grinned. "They lose. All UNSC ships are to head to Mars. We're staying at Earth."

"Got it," Takeshi replied. "Gonna be fun. And will be interesting to see their reactions, since I would imagine that Star Trek exists in this iteration of their universe, too."

"At least their records will be more intact."

"Captain, we're picking up a fighter coming up from the surface. It's an XCOM interceptor!"

"Let's make their job easier. Tractor the saucer. Time to fuck over the Ethereals."

* * *

Raven 4-7 looked at the target. Another alien saucer. Whoopee. Oh, well, time to kill it.

However, something strange happened as what appeared to be a blue energy beam from above enveloped it, and it immediately stopped moving, as if an invisible hand was keeping it in place.

He had to veer off as he closed in. "HQ, this is Raven 4-7! You're not going to believe this!"

* * *

Bradford looked at the blue field. It reminded him of the series of which no one was supposed to speak of.

But everyone secretly watched off duty. He would know: he was one of them.

And then an orange beam speared down from above, coring through the saucer and hitting something vital, if the large explosion was any indication.

"Do we have any satellites in position to look at the origin of that energy field?" he asked. There was no way they were real, but the beam was unmistakable…

Then the image began to show a ship.

Massive saucer section. Engineering section with nacelle pylons and nacelles.

It was a United Federation of Planets Starfleet ship.

An _Odyssey_ -Class from Star Trek Online.

 _THUD_

Bradford looked at the commander, who had fainted on the ground, giggling.

Given that the commander was the biggest Trekkie on base, it was understandable, but… "Someone wake the Commander back up," he said.

After all, he had heroes to meet.

* * *

"Target destroyed."

"Good. Hack into the XCOM satellite network and get me comms to their base of operations. Time to introduce ourselves."

Cassie grinned. Always loved showing off to her man.

* * *

"…That was a fucking _Oddy_."

"Yes Commander."

"That. Was a _fucking. ODDY!_ "

"You don't need to keep reminding us."

Sheridan _stared_ in glee at the starship. He had an _Oddy_ in STO. They were GLORIOUS starships.

And here was one in all its OP GLORY. And it was named _Ra Cailum_.

"I want it."

"You and everyone else on the base."

"How… is this even _possible_!" Vahlen asked, looking at the images. "Isn't that from the science fiction series?"

"Well, if we're talking multiverse theory, anything fictional in one universe could be real in another," Sheridan informed, "Wouldn't surprise me if _we're_ some Sci-fi series in some other universe too - especially seeing a motherfucking _ODDY_!"

The screens fizzled. "What's going on?"

"Something's intruding via the satellite connection! They're hacking in and activating the comms!"

"Disconnect the system—"

" _SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKERS!_ "

The entire staff jumped at the sound of a loud and rude voice as a face connected to a body wearing a uniform.

The classic First Contact uniform. With the commbadge. This was a Starfleet officer.

And judging from the four pips… he was the captain of that _Oddy_.

It took every ounce of his willpower for Sheridan to _not_ have another fanboy freak-out, holding it in. "I… uh, assume you… you are the Captain of the starship we recently detected?" He asked.

" _Captain Ronald Pinkerton of the_ Ra Cailum _. Nice to meet you before you began marinating in your own juices for two decades, Sheridan._ "

Sheridan blinked. "What?"

" _Alternate universe, long story. We'll be on our way down in a few minutes. Hope you don't mind if I bring a few, I don't know, a LOT of security personnel down with me?_ "

"N-not at all!" Sheridan spoke, nodding. "We will… prepare to receive you!"

" _On our way down._ " The call ended.

And Sheridan began to fanboy.

"STARFLEET'S COMING!" Bradford resisted joining in.

EVERYONE at XCOM was a Trekkie or _would_ become one.

* * *

"Did you SEE the look on his face? THAT was priceless!" Ron was taking a _Danube_ down to the surface to allow room for all of his security personnel, which now included Noble Team.

"Definitely the same Sheridan," Jaden said with a chuckle. "Maybe now in _this_ timeline we can actually get some uncorrupted copies of Star Trek."

"GLORIOUS. They'll LOVE that." The _Yellow_ flew towards XCOM's headquarters, hovering above the Skyranger hatch.

* * *

Sheridan and company wore as fancy dress as they could. THIS would be a day worth remembering. "Open the hatch!" The hatch opened, allowing the runabout to drop in.

Sheridan couldn't help but be giddy.

"You are _such_ a child, commander…"

"Hey, my knowledge of Star Trek just might help win over the support of the people who can help us kick the X-Rays off our planet," he replied to Vahlen. "Just follow my lead…"

The _Yellow_ landed, the side hatch opening. Out came the man they saw on the screen, with a black-haired man in a flight suit behind him. And some of the other personnel knew it.

"Is that a Celestial Being normal suit?"

"Fuck me, Gundam 00!"

But the biggest surprise was literally big as what looked like Jorge-052 stepped out, hefting his big ass gun before the rest of Noble Team exited, followed by four… colorful ladies.

Sheridan was also an anime fan and LOVED Rooster Teeth. So the overload of awesomeness was… well… understandable.

Noble, Starfleet, Gundam, _and_ RWBY? _All_ in the same room?

"Uhhh… what's up with his face?" Yang asked, pointing at the seemingly awestruck Commander they knew from the XCOM-verse, who looked as if he just met God.

"I think he's in fan-induced shock." Ron grinned before slapping him. "GEET A HOLD'A YOURSELF, MON!"

"…Jamaican accent?"

"I can do ANY accent."

Sheridan looked Ron in the face. "RWBY, Halo, Gundam, Star Trek… all in the same place. Pinch me."

"Kinky, but I ain't gay. So, we're ALL fictional. Meh. Old news."

Sheridan blinked. "Wait, what?"

"Noble, cover this idiot's ass. RWBY, prepare for anything. The aliens should be launching their attack soon since he's still here."

"W-Wait, what?" Adrian asked in confusion. "What are-"

"We visited another universe where you were captured by the aliens and XCOM got SCREWED for it. Noble, here, will be making sure that never happens. And if the aliens attack… well… leave them to me."

"I… ummm… O-Okay… " Adrian muttered, looking at the Spartans with fanboyish awe. "Well… w-welcome to our Earth… then…"

"You're welcome! Now, let's have a talk."

* * *

"Halo? Why the hell is it called Halo?"

Sheridan simply stared before Ron slapped him out of his stupor. "Sorry. Just… fanboy."

"So was the other one. Continue."

"Well, it was named after a large ring-world that was the setting for most of the first game: Installation 04."

Ron hmmed. "Delta Halo."

"Alpha, actually."

"Alpha is Installation 01. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta. Zero-Four is Delta."

Sheridan couldn't argue with THAT logic. "Well, it's a superweapon."

"Figured. What's it do, kill all life in the galaxy?"

"Yup."

"…come again?"

"The Halo Array was designed for the sole purpose of wiping the galaxy clean of all biomass," Sheridan informed, "The Forerunners created it as a means to defeating the Flood - basically a Fungus-Zombie parasite that threatened to consume all life in the galaxy. The Covies think the Forerunners used the Halo's to ascend as Gods, when in truth they largely killed themselves and re-seeded life across the galaxy after the firing. Though the Prophets actually know the truth - and fear that if they let the rest of the Covenant know that their entire belief system is a lie, their Empire will crumble."

Ron thought about that for a moment. Then grinned. "I know what I'm doing when I go back there…"

"Uh, Prime Directive?"

"In this case, fuck the Prime Directive: that's exploitation of multiple species, not to mention attempted genocide. Plus the Prime Directive only keeps them safe if they don't shoot at me. They _shot_ at me. So I get to destroy them. It's how the _Ra Cailum_ rolls."

"So… the aliens shot at you?"

"They shot at my niece, first. That's worse in my book. Now I'm going to be going on a BIT of a genocidal rampage because I know what they're going to do and I'm going to tear them apart for it. So, how can I help XCOM? I've got access to LOTS of nice toys from the universes we've visited to circumvent the whole 'not sharing technology' thing."

Sheridan's jaw slacked, before quickly composing himself. "…UNSC tech with any Covenant tech you have on hand, plus future XCOM tech, the secrets to RWBY's folding weapons and their mechs, and the mobile suits from the 00 AD-verse…" He then chuckled a bit "And… 22nd Century Starfleet tech… "

Ron rose his brow "Not 25th?"

"I may want one badly, but I know you won't give us the specs for the _Oddy_ ," Sheridan said, "Tech like Phase Cannons and the _NX_ -class feels like a better starting point…"

"Well, I got the parts to make one. I'll have Sonja build it."

"Name it _Avenger,_ give it the Mirror paintjob and I will worship you as a _god_."

"Already am by some pre-warp civilizations. Done."

Sheridan extended his hand and shook Ron's, grinning madly. "Wait, what?"

"Delta Quadrant crap. Kinda went to my head a bit, seeing as I sometimes say I'm a demigod. But it's mostly to be funny."

The lights flickered slightly. "And so it begins. Noble, it's game time! RWBY, time to tear these alien fucks apart!"

* * *

The main doors of the XCOM base were forced open, as hordes of Aliens were allowed to flow inside the base, including Sectoids, Mechtoids, Floaters and more charging inside, intent to destroy humanity's only hope against their might.

And the first thing they saw when they entered was a man. He wore a simple black, grey and red uniform, a sword on his hip and clearly unamused.

"Greetings, fuckwads! My name is Ronald Pinkerton. I'll be your rapist for today! Now…" He unsheathed his sword, spinning it by the pommel's well-oiled and secured tassel. "Who wants daddy's belt?"

The aliens fired and rushed at him.

They had NO idea what they were fucking with.

* * *

While Ron was dealing with the main thrust, RWBY was busy with a flanking attack, with Ruby being… well… Ruby.

Flying scythe through the air against Sectoids.

"I. HOPE. YOU'RE. HUNGRY!" Yang shouted, as she punched a Berserker in the mouth, the shotgun blast sending the Alien flying back, slamming against a wall.

Weiss danced around a Mechtoid, leaving a trail of glyphs which tripped the machine up before she went in for the kill, shoving the tip of Mysternaster into the pilot's head, killing it before moving onto another one while Blake used her own semblance and her Borg enhancements to tear a muton apart.

The XCOM team could only watch in astoundment.

"I have never felt more useless."

The team's sniper nodded. "I want one."

"One what?"

"One of those!" She pointed at Ruby's scythe. "I want a transformable sniper!"

"Look, if they want to help you make one, ask. Until then, keep an eye on the vents! Last thing we need is a Chrysalid crawling out!"

"Uh… all of the Chrysalids are fighting the captain."

"And?" He pointed at a monitor, showing the sight of Ron tearing one in half with his bare hands.

"…What is WITH that guy?! And how the fuck can he do that?!"

"Captain's always been nuts," a Starfleet Officer nearby noted, lazily directing the turrets. "And he's a liberated Borg Drone - had 70% of his body replaced with cybernetics, including half his brain."

"So… Seven of Nine taken to a greater extreme?"

"Yup. And he's going to fuck _everything_ over." A seeker tried to grab Ron, but he grabbed it and pulled it towards him after it panicked and tried to escape, injecting it with nanoprobes.

The Seeker obeyed his commands as he gestured it to go through the base and find more machines for it to assimilate and put under its' master's command.

"And then you have Noble…" The officer pointed to another video feed, where Noble team was killing anything that so much as _breathed_ in Commander Sheridan's direction with ultra-military precision.

"And the Hunter." A Cyberdisk wreck dropped down next to them, as Mark was jumping from flyer to flyer, using liberal use of his semblance and arsenal to knock them out of the sky, still in the air. (In our universe, Ryan Haywood sneezed.)

"FLUFFY GRENADE!" Ruby yelled, tossing a tribble at a berserker as she raced past. The berserker caught the tribble and looked at it stupidly, causing the tribble to scream and promptly explode, taking the muton's head and hands with it.

"Of course." One of the men muttered, done with life. "Exploding tribbles."

"Exploding tribbles. Who the fuck created EXPLODING TRIBBLES?!"

"The same man currently using a muton as his bitch."

The XCOM people looked at Ron, who was, indeed, riding a muton, smacking it with the flat of his sword. "WHO'S YOUR DADDY! COME ON, BITCH, TELL ME! WHO'S YOUR DADDY!"

The team's leader sighed. "Well, might as do something. Marko, take one."

The team's Russian support nodded. Raising his hands, purple energy flowed from his eyes and fingers, lancing out to hit a berserker right in the head. The beast stumbled, straightened, then promptly slammed a sectoid into fine paste. It then proceeded to rampage through the alien lines.

The leader sighed, holding a silencing finger at the officer. "Wait, don't tell me… You've seen this before."

"Sadly." The Berserker charged through the facility before running into the planet's apex killer.

Ron was in their area now.

The Berserker was halted in its' tracks as it slammed into him, the captain skidding back a foot and a half before he roared, being a human Hercules beetle and tossing the massive alien aside, stalking his way over and shoving his sword into its' neck, decapitating it before finding one alien he wanted to kill personally. It wore robes and a helmet and hovered over the ground.

" ** _You_**."

The regal form of the Ethereal floated up. Powerful psionic streams formed around it, and it revealed its four arms to shape a giant sphere of mental energy. With an alien sound that could be interpreted as a roar, it let the sphere loose.

It slammed directly into him, sending him skidding back.

As you know, this did _nothing_ to the unholy bastard.

Actually, it DID do something.

It made him very, very, VERY mad.

"You pissed me off in _one_ universe. Now I kill you all." He ran at the Ethereal, who fired smaller psionic balls at him, which did jack shit but make him more mad until an alarm went off.

"Commander, the Captain's aggression inhibitor is offline!"

"Oh, great," the officer replied. "EVERYONE FALL BACK, LEAVE THIS TO RON AND GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

Ron jumped onto the Ethereal, slamming it into the concrete before punching it in the helmet repeatedly, the psionics keeping the Ethereal from taking lasting harm before sending him flying through two-meter thick concrete walls before the captain used his jetboots to fly at the Ethereal again, screeching like a banshee.

This was only going to end one way.

Question was, how long would the Ethereal last against the one thing it could not control, could not stop and could not kill?

* * *

"What the fuck do you mean, leave it to him?!"

"He's in berserk mode, Bradford: nothing can stop him when he's like this." Takeshi explained as the others gathered in the command center. "Either that Ethereal dies or Ron dies."

"And we all know Ron's not dying." Mark stated.

"Okay—"

 _CRASH_

Ron came crashing into the command center through solid concrete. He managed to arrest his movement before he trashed the Geoscape, and, with a roar, launched himself back through the hole he made.

"GOOD LORD!" Shen shouted.

Everyone else, sans Noble, barely blinked. "Yeah, he does that."

"DIE MOTHERFUCKER!"

"Evacuate the command deck! MOVE!"

"We're no safer anywhere within 300 kilometers of him!" Take elaborated. "The only place we'll be immune from harm is the _Ra Cailum_! Don't worry about the base, the crew's SCE."

* * *

Like a monkey, Ron climbed onto the Ethereal's back, his hands gripping onto the helmet before he removed it by force, punching the Ethereal in the face.

The frail creature psionically shoved him off, firing a burst of energy into Ron's face, burning the flesh on the right side, removing most of his hair and half of the skin near his cybernetic eye.

The white faded away to black as the blue turned a dangerous red.

Luna had nicknamed Ron 'the Terminator' for _some_ reason when he looked like this. The Ethereal fired more psionic bolts at him, his uniform burning away with each shot, his jacket in tatters after the fifth blast.

He was still going, though, as unstoppable as the legendary killer cyborg from those famous movies, if not _more_ so, as he continued to attack the Ethereal.

The being crawled away, putting up a psionic field that would eat away Ron's flesh. Sadly, when you piss something like Ron off…

That was a **_minor inconvenience_**. He walked through the field, his fingernails burning off, followed by most of his skin on his hands and arms before he gripped the Ethereal's head.

The Ethereal was horrified.

What would STOP this engine of destruction?!

It dropped the field and forced its' way into Ron's head. That was its' LAST mistake.

It saw the Borg. It heard the voices. It saw assimilation. It saw futile resistance.

It saw death's harbinger and how he had killed the Ethereals before.

It knew it was dead.

Its body just hadn't noticed.

It whimpered for mercy.

"Mercy." Ron spat, throwing the frail being to the floor."You want mercy. You show no mercy to humans. You show no mercy to anyone or thing. No. You don't get mercy." His tubules slid out with practiced ease.

"You get _death_." He injected the nanoprobes into the Ethereal's body, programing them to do one thing.

Destroy any Ethereal genetic material and anything organic linked to it.

The Ethereal could only scream as its body seemed to melt away.

Ron gave it one last look before walking off.

The Ethereal screamed out one more psionic burst.

It called him Death. Death Incarnate.

* * *

A Sectoid Commander panicked as the Ethereal died, looking around, scrambling away before a blade met its' neck, removing its' head.

Its' killer, Ron, walked into the ruined command center. "Report."

No one answered, all staring at his Terminator-esque appearance. "What, never seen a cyborg before? Report, goddamn it!"

"Uhhh… th… the aliens are retreating… the… the ones who haven't been killed… anyway…" one of the techs reported, glancing at the blood-soaked demigod.

"Good! Commander Sheridan, I'll have engineering crews repair the place for you. Until then, you can bunk on the _Ra Cailum_ and use it as a command center for your operations." Sheridan began geeking out. There would be _plenty_ of space for XCOM to use. "Also, Take, you're in charge. I got a doc to see about making myself look pretty again."

Takeshi nodded. "Understood, boss," he said. "Try not to take too long."

Ron beamed out, leaving nothing in his wake.

Well, except for dead bodies.

Jaden poked his head out of a doorway. "Is he gone?"

"Yeah, he just beamed up. Nice work keeping the main power grid up."

"I might know how to fight, but this place needed power first. Leave Ron to do all the heavy lifting. How'd he look?"

Takeshi chuckled. "As bad as ever. That Ethereal nearly got him: most of his skin was burned off."

"Fuck me. He's got pain tolerance for days."

"Try eternity."

And ignoring them all was Sheridan, still geeking out, bouncing up and down.

Only one thought rang through his head.

' _Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy, Oddy!_ '

I don't think anyone can blame him.

It's a fucking _Odyssey_.

* * *

 **Redemption's Avenger: Yup, the geek out again. Come on. Wouldn't you be fan-boying/girling out of your skin if _your_ favorite Star Trek ship appeared and _said hello_ to you?**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yeah, I would - of course, the same would be true if a motherfrakking X-Wing parked in my backyard. Or a Mobile Suit. Or an Arwing.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Or a Connie. Especially a Connie. …Fuck you all! CONNIE! (Cackles madly)**

 **Ruby: He's doing the thing again.**

 **Weiss: (Glyphs him unconscious)**

 **Blake: Thank you.**

 **Yang: Yeah, he was giving me a headache. Thanks, sis.**

 **RA: Thank god he's not like his Borg OC. Although that wouldn't stop him from making a Connie like an Oddy.**

 **117Jorn: Ain't that the truth.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	26. Chapter 26

**XCOM headquarters**

* * *

"…Your engineering crew is like that of God himself."

Ron shrugged, his right eye still Terminator-ish while the skin was more or less normal, minus a large amount of hair, including that of his eyebrows. He had cut the rest of his hair to make it look somewhat even. "We build starbases; this is _nothing_. A little silicon there, some duranium reinforcement here, some repurposed Advent turrets, and this place will be a fortress."

Sheridan nodded, looking around the mostly repaired base. "Rocks into replicators indeed."

"Who said that?"

"Oh, some Vorta asshole. Happened during DS9 when Sisko's captured bug ship crashed on a planet, along with some Jem'hadar and their wounded 'supervisor.' " Sheridan smiled wistfully.

"Yeah. Vorta and the Founders were- _are_ assholes."

"Anyways, we need some assistance with another matter." Sheridan led the overpowered captain into the mostly untouched situation room.

"Councilman, he's here."

The screen changed to show the ever-shrouded silhouette of the Council Spokesman. " _Commander. Captain Pinkerton._ "

"Oh, it's you!" Ron leaned over to whisper to Sheridan. "You can trust him, he was with you in the last universe."

 _"We require the aid of XCOM and of your ship, captain."_

"What do you need, what needs to die and where do I need to go?"

" _You are eager. Good. The location is in France: a military convoy owned by EXALT was hit, but the French are saying it was not one of theirs. The Council wants this situation… contained, as it was stopped by the aliens near a dam_."

Ron shrugged. "I'm in the mood for blood. Equip one of your combat teams for engineering duty: I'll handle the aliens."

The Spokesman nodded, and the link cut.

"Which team will you be sending?" Sheridan asked, following Ron out.

"Some of the Hunters. But they'll just be backup. I'll be leading this _personally._ "

"You just recovered from killing an Ethereal."

"Oh, please, I killed an Iconian with Takeshi's help. I'm FINE. going to take a bit until the eye's back to normal, though."

Sheridan stopped, processing that. "…An Iconian?"

"Yup."

"…stop climbing the badass tree. Please."

Ron scoffed.

Stop climbing? The man was at the top of the tree, according to a lot of people. Really, he was only halfway up compared to most people.

He wasn't _that_ badass.

* * *

The Skyranger flight was quiet. Usually, the cabin was full of chatter. The main reason for the silence was the man with mismatched eyes, holding his phaser rifle.

Strike-One had seen what he did to that Ethereal. They were scared of him. The sheer, raw brutality he unleashed in the base was unlike anything the team had _seen_ before. Were they glad he was on their side? Obviously, but they were still a bit… _concerned_ about saying or doing something wrong to piss off the one-man army.

Especially with that grin. He was looking forward to the impending slaughter. "This is Big Sky, we're over the drop-zone." Ron opened the rear hatch, then jumped out, impacting the ground with a thud. The aliens who saw him land…

Well, any of them capable of pissing themselves did. They remembered what he did to an Ethereal.

"Hello, boys. Sorry for the pun, but I decided to drop in. Now… who wants to die?"

The aliens fled.

That was _not_ going to save them.

* * *

"He scares me."

Every member of Strike-One looked at their gunner. "Seriously, look at him! He tore that Berserker IN HALF! WITH HIS BARE HANDS!"

"Just be glad he's on _our_ side..." The team's marksman muttered. "I'd hate to be whoever gets him pissed off… "

Another Sectoid ran, but Ron caught up and tore its' head off like a strawberry from a vine.

"Note to self: NEVER MAKE HIM MAD." A Berserker managed to catch him off guard, punching him dozens of feet into a truck.

"Three, two, one…"

Ron shot back out, propelled by rocket boots, and slammed into the Berserker, sending it flying off the steep edge of the dam, screaming. It died when it hit the water.

Strike looked at Mark, who shrugged. "What can I say? When something hits him, it usually dies shortly thereafter.

"Why are you _here?_ " The team's Heavy asked. "We've got him, we don't need assistance!"

"Well, it's mostly to cover your asses." The Hunter explained. "In case something comes up behind us. Not that he doesn't trust your abilities, after all, you're still alive, even with a fifty percent fatality rating, but he'd rather you not die."

Something clanked to their left, and faster than any of them could react, Mark flipped over the jersey wall and placed a bullet into the Sectoid's head, which had so far managed to hide from the massacre.

"See?"

"You make US look unnecessary."

"Well, you don't have other forces enhancing your abilities."

"If you ladies are done, the assholes have been mopped up." Ron called out, wiping the blood off his hands. "Let's find out what the hell the EXALT idiots were transporting."

The group stepped over the corpses and approached the heavily armored truck in the middle of the road.

As the approached, the trailer shook. Strike stopped, raising their rifles, but Ron just strode forward. Reaching for the door, it opened for him as a body, an EXALT operative, slid out. Throwing the door open, he had just enough time to see a pair of sneakers…

A woman burst out of the trailer, a unknown shockwave of some sort knocking Strike to the ground, and causing Ron to stumble as the door knocked him out of the way.

It was a woman with short black hair, wearing slightly tattered clothes.

"Who-hey Stop!" One of the XCOM soldiers shouted, but she kept running. So he fired off a few shots away from her, making sure he got the point across - which he did, as she suddenly came to a halt.

"Please… you don't understand… " she said, with a french accent. "I have to find the others."

The soldier rose his brow, as Ron stood up. "Look Ma'am, just calm down." He said, "We can help you find your… friends."

"You can't, I… you don't get it!" She shouted, "Do you know how many of us they've KILLED?!" There was a sudden surge of psionic energy which flew out from the woman, forcing all of them to recoil - even Ron was pushed back slightly from her display.

"Lady, do you know how many of them I'VE killed?"

She looked at Ron before she noticed the MASSIVE number of corpses. "You… You can fight them."

"Fight them? Please, that was ENTIRELY one-sided." She narrowed her eyes, her psionics peering into his mind.

What she saw was death: aliens dying at his hands, destruction and pain…

And undying loyalty to his crew.

"Get out of my head."

Annette blinked. "You… you can resist the gift?" She asked, glancing around, seeing all the dead alien bodies again. "H-How…?"

"I have had _trillions_ of voices in my head before, hearing another in the silence isn't that hard." Ron informed, "As for the aliens… a few bullets can kill anything when you put your mind to it… or your bare hands, but I don't judge."

"T-thank you all."

"Fuck no, lady, all of the aliens that died today were at HIS hands." The XCOM soldier said, pointing at Ron. "We just watched."

"In fear." Ron added with a smirk. "Come on, unless you touch my niece or my girlfriend, you avoid my rage, miss…?"

The woman looked at him somewhat hesitantly, before nodding "A-Annette," she said, "Annette Durland."

"Well, Annette, we have a lot of work to do. Big Sky, this is _Ra Cailum_ Actual: package recovered. Get down here and pick us up."

" _Copy that, Actual._ "

"You're not the only human they've taken."

"My… my friends."

"We'll find them. Barring that, the aliens are going to suffer greatly."

* * *

"A woman?"

"An extremely strong psionic woman." Ron informed. "EXALT was transporting her for some reason, probably to another facility. The aliens then came to try and capture her… or rather recapture her."

"Recapture?" Adrian asked.

"We were able to find some data off the EXALT bodies," He said, passing them a PADD. "It's incomplete, but at some point EXALT obtained Annette, then gave her and her friends to the aliens…but then they attacked them, and recaptured them. Looks like the Aliens think they're important enough to get them back."

"Any theories as to why?" Bradford asked.

"Well, the attack to reclaim them happened not long after the base attack it seems," Ron said shrugging, "She could've somehow been responsible for all the psionic take-overs… "

"It's possible," Vahlen said, "My initial check-up with her does confirm she has abnormally large stores of psionic energy. However if she was responsible for the attack, she clearly doesn't remember it. "

"What she _was_ was a relay, a booster for something else, likely another Ethereal. In the other universe, they were using humans to create new bodies for themselves because their psionics were killing them. Humans have durable bodies compared to the Ethereals. They just want to take the planet, first."

"Bastards."

"We've picked up a high-speed saucer in orbit, so I'm going to beam up and tear the bastards to pieces, land the damn thing and we'll have cookies later. See you." He disappeared in a shower of light, Sheridan resisting the urge to make a fangirlish squeal.

He was a fanboy. There was a difference.

* * *

Tex cleaned her MA5B again. She was the best, the most lethal bitch known to humanity.

And then _Ron_ appeared.

He was faster, stronger, more durable, smarter and he DIDN'T NEED ARMOR.

This would not stand.

As she waited for the Captain on the holopad to handle the UFO, she only had one thing on her mind. A point had to be made, only one of them could be called the supreme "bad-ass" of the fleet.

In other words… There can only be one.

* * *

"I'll secure the damn thing and land it at your front door. An intact one would do nicely, wouldn't it?"

"Just try not to blow it up. We're sending another team to attack the alien base while you're up there; think you can spare anyone?"

"Team RWBY is ready to go, but I'll them beam down after I finish that ship." Ron activated his compression rifle. It was time to go killing.

* * *

The aliens on the UFO manned the vessel as they continued to orbit the planet, looking for their next target for abductions until…

"Hey boys, how's your health care?" Everyone spun around as Ron stood in the middle of the craft. Everyone drew their plasma weapons and fired upon him, "APPARENTLY ITS GREAT!"

The intruder began killing them all, hacking them apart with his sword and shooting at them while laughing.

* * *

"So… how much collateral are we expecting from this?"

"The Ron amount." Corpsa chuckled. There was not going to be anything left on that ship intact when he was…

"Hold on, something just beamed to the UFO. …Did anyone clear Tex to beam over? 'Cause she's on the UFO now."

"…Ohhh no…"

* * *

"Uneventful as usual," Ron sighed, as he dropped the Berserker corpse. "It'd be nice to fight someone who-" He blinked as he heard the transporter beam, turning around to see Tex. "Oh Tex! What are you-"

* _SLAM_ *

Ron was slammed into the side of the UFO, forming a massive Ron-sized dent in the wall from Tex's kick.

"Ok, what the fuck."

"You're not getting out of this, Pinkerton. Now we see who's the bigger badass."

"Tex, this is fucking—" Her fist impacted the wall, just after Ron rolled out. "—Pointless! Seriously, we're on the same side!"

"Maybe for you. But you're someone that could give me a challenge. I want to see how tough you really are."

Ron groaned. "Great."

* * *

"Sir, the UFO is veering off course."

Adrian rose his brow "Shouldn't Ron be able to handle-"

"He's fighting Tex." Jaden informed, causing Adrian to blink.

"…when you say Tex, do you mean-"

"Miss Rips-skulls-out-of-heads-and-beats-you-to-death-with-it?" Jaden asked, nodding. "Yes… _That_ Tex."

Sheridan facepalmed. "Whoever wins… they lose…" The commander turned to his quarters. "I'm going to get drunk. Call me when those two are done."

* * *

Ron blocked and parried strike after strike, getting VERY fucking annoyed with Tex's ego.

He wasn't the toughest thing in the universe, though he was close to it. He could just take more punishment than the regular guy.

That said however… Tex came pretty damn close to his level, as she delivered an upper-cut which sent him upwards, smashing his head through the roof of the UFO. "You're good, but don't think I-" Ron began to say, as he tried to pull his head out… but it didn't budge. "I said, I don't think-" still didn't move. "GAH SHIT I'M STUCK!"

"…Need some help there?" Tex asked, as she slid an alien console under Ron's legs.

"I've… Got… THIS!" Ron shouted, pulling again, as he fell… as he landed on the console right between the family jewels.

That made him mad. "NOW it's personal." He launched himself at Tex, slamming his fist into Tex's helmet, sending her into a non-dented wall.

"You know, I was being a nice guy before… NOW I DO want to kill your ass simply because you have an ego that's easily bruised."

"I'm the best, Pinkerton. You're probably the only one equal to me, and I can't take that. I have to be on top."

"Is that in bed or just in general?"

Tex actually paused at that. Did… he just make a crack at her sex life with Church?

"So, do you… wear leather or do you just cuff him whenever you're in the mood?"

…Yeah, he's fucking Dead. Tex roared as she leaped forward, and delivered a kick which sent Ron flying down the ship's corridors, as Tex pursued.

She launched kicks and punches at him, taking alien weapons and firing at him with them, the plasma impacting his shields. But the more she fired, the more he was recharged while her Mk Vb MJOLNIR was losing power from being forced to recharge her shields after every hit.

Ron, however, kept coming. "Getting tired of this shit, Tex. Stand down before we destroy this ship and one of us gets killed. Probably you; I've survived worse."

" _He has,_ " Takeshi said over the comms. " _He actually tanked a Photon Torpedo Detonation once. Point. Blank. And that's not counting the time he survived getting flooded out down in the Challenger Deep._ "

"Don't care. You need to fall."

She punched, but this time Ron caught it.

"The ENTIRE time, I've been playing with you. You want me serious? Fine. You'll be spending a few days in sickbay after I'm done." he shoved Tex back, then punched her in the head and kicked her to the deck before slamming his fist into her chest.

This already weakened the structural integrity of the saucer, so when it turned, it broke in half.

" _Oh, jeez,_ " Takeshi groaned. " _I'll get transporters standing by, boss!_ "

"Don't bother. It's been awhile since I fell into atmo."

"Wait, WHAT?!" The ship broke up after Tex's surprised comment, both of them falling into the atmosphere.

He fell into the atmosphere. That son of a bitch fell into the atmosphere. SHE'D never fallen into the atmosphere before! That former Red ODST did, but he was _never_ doing that again.

So… she improvised. Taking a chunk of fairly flat metal, and jumping out - she began using it a shield as she and Ron both entered the Earth's atmosphere as the Saucer shattered.

Ron, meanwhile, simply retuned his personal shields to absorb thermal energy to recharge his internal power cells. He would glide down, corkscrewing down through the atmosphere. Not fun, but it bled energy and speed.

* * *

"Okay, I got 10,000! Anyone else!" Tucker shouted, using a helmet to take in the various bets across the base. "Come on, this is Ron vs Tex! Who's gonna take the prize? Any more?"

"Seriously, Tucker? You're BETTING on this?"

"Dude, that guy is a tank! If he were a real tank, ALL the ladies would be flocking to see it!" Church had to admit, the pervert was right on the tank part: the man took on things that would've killed ALL of them at least twice over and he was still standing.

Tex was tough, super tough. But the captain was harder than diamond, literally.

"Saucer's impacted the ground, Strike-Two and Three, en route. IFF tags on Pinkerton and Tex indicate that they're about to land in Arizona. Someone's about to have a bad day."

* * *

Tex's slab of metal crashed, forcing a small crater - but it would take more than that to take down Texas, as she walked out of the crater with a bit of a daze - but straightened up quickly as Ron glided down to the surface.

"THAT was fun. So, Allison, are we done? Because your suit's power supply is down to 4% and I'm at 98.7. This contest is over as far as I'm concerned." Tex screamed as she got back up, but she didn't get far as Ron simply ducked out of the way, but out of the wreckage came a wounded, but alive and VERY mad Berserker.

"…Son of a bitch…" Tex muttered, standing back up as she cranked her neck.

The Berserker smacked her aside, roaring before Ron pulled out his sword and hacked off both legs, sending it to the ground and shoving the blade through the back of Berserker's chest, killing it with a heart-strike.

He walked over to the fallen Spartan, extending his hand.

Tex had to admit defeat. This demigod was better. She took his hand as he hauled her up. "Good fight. Might have to try it again in somewhere LESS breakable."

* * *

Jaden and his two ladies sat in front of a monitor, watching that most glorious of TV series.

By that, we mean Star Trek The Original Series.

"J-Just look at that thing!" Jaden laughed, pointing at the representation of the Horta in the STTOS representation of the beast from 'The Devil in The Dark' "You-* _laugh_ * you can totally see the guy underneath it!"

"They're the miners from hell; we got a few of them on board the _Ra Cailum_. They like to nap."

"Wait, how come I never saw any of them?"

"They're on Deck 37, section 48. And like I said…" Sonja kissed him on the cheek. "They like to sleep."

Jaden blushed slightly, but smiled. "Now I kinda envy them," He admitted, "Sleeping as long as they want… "

"I know _I_ could use it…" Sonja admitted, sighing as she flopped back onto bed. "Been working on all that Ethereal tech… ugh, why do these Ethereals have to be so goddamned _confusing_ with their tech, it's unnecessarily complicated!"

"It probably just proves that they suck, and you rule…" Jaden chuckled, before he began massaging Sonja's back once again, causing her to moan.

"Oh fuck yes…" Sonja muttered, letting Jaden do his thing. "I swear… you'd make a great masseuse…"

"Thanks," Jaden chuckled - however he felt a tap on his shoulder, and glanced to see Nena behind him, grinning as she showed him some kind of glass jar with some kind of oil inside. "…you mind getting out of some of your uniform, Sonja? I've got something I wanna try here… "

"Hm? Sure," Sonja said, pulling off the upper part of her uniform, putting her in nothing but her bra. Nena opened the Jar, as Jaden put some of the oils onto his hand, rubbing them.

"Here goes… " he said, before he continued his work - rubbing along her shoulders where he knew her sensitive spots were.

He, unfortunately, didn't know what was IN the oil. It was a heavy-duty aphrodisiac, though it had a good secondary application to keeping most skin baby soft.

It was child-safe: the chemicals only activated in adults thanks to special reactants. There were MAJOR scandals involving that stuff before the added stuff was put in.

And Jaden was rubbing it in all the right (or wrong, depending on your point of view) places.

Sonja moaned happily as Jaden rubbed the oil into her back. "Wow, you _really_ like this then…" Jaden muttered, as he continued to rub and spread the oil across her shoulders and back, not noticing Nena giggling madly behind him as she began taking off her Starfleet uniform.

"Take off your clothes, Jaden."

"What?"

"Take. Them. Off."

"Uh… no?"

Sonja looked at him over her shoulder. He had a feeling she wasn't taking no for an answer.

* * *

While it had taken some doing, Sonja had managed to pay off Cryptic Studios to give them full access to their data on Star Trek Online.

They now had a fully functioning server, with enough computer terminals running through the ship for the entire crew - with plans to make them fleet-wide.

Ruby had just made her own character and gone through the tutorial (Rutia said it was MUCH like the mission where she found and saved Ron) and now was being challenged to a massive 50 v 50 PVP match.

Ruby, in her T1 Andorian light escort, flew in, accompanied by Yang in her T1 Connie. Weiss played support overwatch with her _Oberth,_ while Blake flew around unseen in her T1 _T'varo._

The team descended on a group of light cruisers belonging to some of the Remnant natives. Ruby and Yang distracted them, Weiss stripped away their shields, while Blake Alpha striked a pair from behind.

They didn't last long, much to the native's annoyance.

Coco's T2 Cruiser, in redesigned _Constitution_ Refit skin, fired its' similarly reskinned phasers (to fit Wrath of KHAAAAAAAAAAAN! Looks and sound of firing) hit Blake's ship, supported by Velvet's T2 battlecruiser and the _Dhelans_ of the other two members of CFVY.

"Damn it, Coco!"

"We've had more time to grind up, _Lieutenant_ Rose."

Ruby growled before plasma bursts from a _Norexan_ -Class warbird (called a _Mogai_ for some stupid reason) hit Coco's ship, tearing its' shields off. "Hey!"

Kim chuckled as she recloaked, dodging fire. "We have MORE time on our hands!"

As was evident when _Defiants, Galaxys,_ and _Intrepids,_ including their C-store brethren, met in a massive dogfight. Anyone T3 and under, and not in a C-store ship quickly left the area to find smaller fish to fry.

That was when the Tier 6 ships arrived.

"SURPRISE!" Mark's T6 Fleet Battlecruiser, in _Avenger_ skin, decloaked, spearing Matt's _Galaxy_ through with an alpha strike and tearing through the brawl with barrages of scatter fire.

Takeshi's _Mercury_ Pilot Escort came in next, boosting into the fray and unleashing a barrage of microtorpedoes, adding a scatter volley and a Torp Spread 3 into the mix.

For a few minutes, Takeshi dominated. Then the _monster_ appeared. They all knew the ship: after all, they were living on board it.

It had the same registry and name, too: USS _Ra Cailum_ , NCC-94517-A. Coco and Yang were vaporized in a short burst, other ships lasting only one broadside longer. "Surprise, kiddies!"

"SHIT!" Mark yelled, using Rock and Roll to dodge a furious barrage, then kicking in Evasive Maneuvers to get the hell out. "Nope, nope, all the nopes!"

Takeshi was lasting decidedly longer, after all, this is a game, and balance was needed. Still didn't stop Ron from being a OP bastard.

"Cheating prick!"

"I just have better equipment!" He proved it by dropping the equipment in chat:

Phaser beam array Mk 14 [Dmgx2, CrtH, Acc/Dmg and crtd] x 6, quantum torpedo launcher Mk 14 [Dmgx3, CrtH and Acc/Dmg] x 2…

You get the idea: he has gold _everything_.

"HOW?! We haven't even _had_ this for that long!"

"I'm literally connected to the computer 24/7: only Cassie can match me. I _am_ the grinder."

"Fucking prick!"

Another ship decloaked, being a T6 Tactical _Bortasqu'_. "Never. Insult. My man."

Cassie promptly dumped all end-game abilities on the unfortunate ship.

That aside, Ruby was having fun.

Because all the people that killed her ship? They were getting slaughtered by the only two that were top level.

" _Holy shit did you see the size of that explosion?_ " Jaune said, as his _Akira_ -class heavy escort carrier, with Ren in a _Nomad_ -class long-range science vessel, Nora using a _Manticore_ -class Heavy Destroyer, and Pyrrha in a _Mercury_ -class pilot escort.

" _So… should we help or something?_ " Pyrrha asked.

" _Are you kidding? That's a max-leveled_ Bortasqu _firing at the fleet!_ " Ren informed, " _We don't have the power to get anywhere_ within _firing distance!_ "

" _Yeah, you're pretty screwed._ " Jaune glanced to the side… finding a Romulan _D'deridex_ Warbird.

" _Gah! WHat the- Jaden?!_ " Jaune asked, " _What are you-_ "

" _Oh, just decided to take a step back,_ " Jaden informed, floating next to the four Federation ships.

" _Oh, umm… okay..._ "

" _Boy that little horsey went to the glue factory, didn't he girls?_ " Jaden asked… as a _Scimitar_ -class Warbird appeared beside it, along side a Tal Shiar Adapted Battlecruiser.

" _Sir, that wasn't as good as Captain Pinkerton's…_ " Nena muttered.

" _GAH! Wha-where did those come from?!_ " Jaune shouted.

" _Come on you two, that was a classic!_ " Jaden said, " _You need to be more open-minded about your humor._ "

" _Get back to your own side! GOD THIS IS AWKWARD!_ " Jaune shouted, as the ships just floated there in place.

" _…anyone else smell popcorn right about now?_ "

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: And an accurate description of PvP in STO, plus a few ACTUAL fixes. Of course, PvP's bullshit to me. I prefer cooperation. That's what Star Trek's message is all about.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: True enough.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Yeah. Alliances and everything. Keep in mind this is 2015 STO, so they won't know future events just up to the Iconian War.**

 **117Jorn: Yeah, I don't do PvP all that much… So… NEXT TIME ON STO! RWBY infiltrates the Ethereal Base, however as they investigate, they make a startling discovery… what might it be? Find out next time on STAR TREK ODYSSEY!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	27. Chapter 27

**XCOM headquarters**

 **The Next Day**

* * *

Fun and games were over as the teams got back to work, following a simple command from Ron, using the glorious voice of Christopher Lee.

"LEAVE NONE ALIVE!"

Say what you will about Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies, he picked the PERFECT guy to play Saruman.

Anyways, Ron was sending Strike One, RWBY, and the Hunter to take down the alien base. While that was happening, Ron and Annette were assaulting the cargo barge that Annette's friends were located on.

Annette's psionic abilities had been fully unlocked, and she had been given a psi amp from the last XCOM universe to further enhance her abilities.

And right now, she was training with Ron, who was having the time of his life fighting a psionic that WASN'T trying to kill him.

But back to RWBY, who, at this moment, was dropping in on the base in Bactria. They had all been equipped with modified arc throwers, smaller and more powerful than the current XCOM model.

Blake wanted them to all have phaser rifles, but Vahlen bitched and moaned. Blake brought one along anyways.

"Woah." Ruby looked around the place. "Gross."

"Are these people okay…" Weiss trailed off as she spotted the stasis tanks and operating tables.

"Don't touch them." Mark called out. "We don't know if those people have been tested with diseases, or how to deactivate those tanks."

"Reminds me of the Solanae." Strike's sharpshooter muttered.

"Solanae?"

"Lifeforms that live in subspace. The _Enterprise_ -D encountered them and…" Blake winced. "You don't want to know."

"Actually, I do."

"They surgically removed and reattached limbs." Weiss puked, regretting the action.

"Don't worry about that," The Strike leader said, motioning his hand forward. "Come on… hopefully we secure this place, we can save the people afterwards…"

Ruby cocked her weapon.

It was time to ruin a few days.

* * *

The commander of the base watched as they were slowly and systematically slaughtered. The one in red and black… she looked… familiar.

Oh…

 _Her_.

The Sectoid commander reached out with his psionics, entering Ruby's mind. Ruby was too strong to control, but it would communicate.

" _Get out of my head, Alien._ " Ruby thought, detecting the alien's presence almost immediately.

" ** _You cannot hope to stop us,_** " The Commander said, " ** _We have dealt with those like you before. You will not stop our ascension._** "

" _You've never handled someone like_ us _._ " Ruby countered.

" ** _Have we?_** " the Commander asked, before several images flashed before Ruby's mind… of a woman wearing a white, hooded cloak.

"…Mom?"

" ** _She is ours. You will fail as she did._** "

THAT was a mistake.

One, the Commander revealed that Summer Rose was ALIVE.

Two, that the Ethereals had her.

And three? They pissed off Team RWBY by pissing off its' leader with the first two items.

Ron was going to look like a merciful _saint_ when Ruby was done with the Sectoid Commander.

To the surprise of everyone, Ruby became a red lightning bolt, travelling to the Commander in the blink of an eye and pinning it to the wall, barrel of Crescent Rose pressed against it's throat.

The Commander suddenly found out that it couldn't release the psionic link.

" _You will tell me everything you know."_ Ruby thought. " _And then you will_ suffer."

It screamed as it's mind was torn apart, piece by _agonizing_ piece, forced to give up it's deepest secrets by a pair of glowing silver orbs.

* * *

Ron expected nothing but good news from RWBY.

Instead, he got more feelings of **_unyielding rage_**.

"Excuse me. You said that the fuckers are holding YOUR MOTHER prisoner?"

Ruby nodded, angry. "One of them got inside my head, mocked me, and I saw my mother."

"And as the bastards can't probe deeply into your memories—" Something Ron confirmed personally, "that means Summer Rose is alive. …Any pity I had for them is gone. NOW we are going to KILL THEM ALL."

"Oh, we're not only gonna do that." Yang said, hair flaming. "When we're through with them, they will be _screaming_ for their gods. Captain, is the RAGE suit ready?"

Ron smiled. "Oh, it has been for a while. Send it down?"

"Yes please. Alongside team TRQ."

"Sure thing. Feel free to raid the armory as well, I'm not getting in your way. Might as well give you full autonomy."

Ruby cocked Crescent Rose, chipper demeanor _gone_. "Good. Cause we are going to fucking _destroy_ them."

"Captain, there's an alert about a terror attack on Earth: alien forces—"

"I'll deal with it. Inform XCOM that they won't be needed."

"…Sir?" Ron disappeared in a shower of light, everyone beginning to darkly chuckle.

"Someone's gonna die."

* * *

LO-Y4856RP patrolled the city, shooting at any human that crossed its' path.

As was its lot in life. As it was ordered by it's masters.

Soon, it would have a new master.

Too late, LO-Y4856RP detected a human from above. The human landed on it's back. The pod immediately tried to shake the human off, swinging around and deploying its secondary turret.

Before it could do this, however, it felt something foreign enter it's systems.

New programming flooded it's AI core, giving LO-Y4856RP a new directive.

Serve Ronald Pinkerton. Serve Starfleet. OBEY.

The pod stood tall, scanning for mechanoids that it once called comrades to turn.

The Sectopod marched on, firing on mutons and sectoids. A Seeker tried to stop it, but newly-created tubules injected it with nanoprobes.

It was a new comrade.

* * *

Sheridan watched as Ron directed alien mechs to attack the aliens, turning drones, seekers, sectopods and other mechs into his own personal attack force.

He was _taking over the aliens_.

He was nigh-unstoppable.

' _I am continuously glad he is on OUR side,_ ' Sheridan thought.

He had an army of 4 Sectopods, 46 drones, 15 cyberdiscs and 8 seekers. And it would only grow, as there were still robots in the area.

"Should we be… well—"

"Fucking grateful he's on our side? YES."

"Believe me, be glad we ALL aren't killing machines like that," Takeshi remarked. "Seriously, we're all pretty ticked by now, since we just learned that someone crossed over to this universe before us, and is currently being held by the Ethereals."

"Who?"

"Summer Rose."

"Ruby's MOM? SHE'S here?"

"Probably on their ship. And Ruby's mad. Ron has literally become second-place in the anger department. Though, that's not going to be lasting long."

"Well, I would love to meet Summer Rose. Wonder if she's like her daughter."

Bradford sighed. "I think we can sit down and relax now. They've got this."

* * *

The next week was nothing but death: RWBY slaughtered the Aliens at every turn. Crescent Rose was almost always coated in alien blood, as Ruby only cleaned it after every four or five missions, rushing into the field in rage.

And her eyes were always glowing.

It clearly meant something. Weiss theorised that it was Ruby's mastery of her semblance, but the only basis she had was Mark's moment of rage after losing Larcei. It clearly wasn't however, as she had _psionically_ torn that Sectoid Commander apart, and afterwards, lesser aliens simply dropped dead when she _looked_ at them.

Qrow, however, knew what it was.

And he was not in the mood to talk about it.

Raven, meanwhile, was conflicted.

Rutia had given her some chemical cocktail that turned the clock back for her, restoring her youth so she could be with Taiyang again and not feel like a cradle-robber.

But Summer was alive.

The old Raven would just let it be - Summer loved Taiyang, he loved her, so why bother? Let them be together, maybe forget about her.

…but on the other hand…

…being with Taiyang again… it was bringing back old memories, old feelings… and being with Yang…

But she didn't want to fight Summer for it.

So she decided to ask for a medium.

Riza Pinkerton lived across from their quarters, and while Raven was deadly, fucking with the captain's sister was a bad idea: she did NOT like being woken up when she didn't want to be and if she didn't make you hurt, her brother WOULD.

She left their quarters, rang Riza's doorbell and waited before Riza, in a nightdress, looking moderately pissed. "Miss Branwen. Might I ask what the hell you woke me up for?"

"Sorry for… disturbing you, Miss Pinkerton," Raven said, "It's just… well… I need some… advice from you."

The angered look vanished a bit, as Riza tilted her head. "On what?" She asked.

"It's… about Taiyang."

Riza groaned and turned around, gesturing for her to enter before she pulled out a bottle. "I don't drink—"

"You WILL if you want to talk to me." Raven gulped as Riza poured two glasses of alcohol. "Saurian brandy, vintage 2371. This stuff is as old as my brother. Take a seat and a glass."

Raven nodded, taking a seat and a drink from the glass - coughing a bit. "By Oum what _is_ this?!"

"Lightweight. No captain worth a damn hasn't drank this stuff. Romulan ale, now THAT knocks you on your ass." Riza sipped from her own glass, Raven mimicking as she thought that was the proper way to drink the brandy.

It was. "So… what is it?"

"It's… they found Summer."

"I was there for my brother's assimilation rampage, thank you."

"No… He was married to Summer and me, I left and…"

"Out with it. You're wasting time I could be using sleeping."

"I want to how if there's a way all three of us can be together, damn it!"

Riza blinked. Then laughed. Loudly.

"Wh-why are you laughing?!" Raven demanded, blushing "T-this is serious!"

"Why the fuck do you think I'm LAUGHING? Federation law, dumbass."

"Huh?"

"Some species require more than one partner: the bolians have co-husbands, the Denobulans have four husbands for each wife and four wives for each husband, you get the idea. Federation law had to find a happy compromise which we found." She downed more liquor, Raven suddenly cursing her inexperience. "By legalizing polygamy."

Raven blinked once. Twice. Three times.

"Wait, WHAT?!"

"You heard me. Polygamy is LEGAL. Why do you think Jaden has Nena and Sonja on his arms and no one's bitching? Because, under Federation law, he's allowed."

"Then how come I don't see more polygamous people on this ship?!"

Riza downed the rest of her glass before pouring another, Raven sipping to try and keep up. Not that she WOULD: she wasn't Qrow.

"Because, while it's legal, most humans and other species are like my brother: one spouse only. I think that's going to change, though: Annette's been giving him looks and I think he's interested."

Raven squinted. "I can't see Cassandra being the type to let them."

"She'll give in. Anything for her man, after all. If you three marry on this ship with my brother proceeding, it's legal under Federation law. End of story." She poured her another glass. "And if you let that glass go to waste, I will kick your ass."

"I could give it to Qrow."

"Fuck no! I gave it to you, and you're drinking."

* * *

Half a bottle of brandy later, Raven stumbled back into Taiyang's quarters, face as red as Ruby's cloak. "Raven, what the hell happened to you?"

"I-I became Qrow." Raven dropped to the floor. "It is so fun down here!"

"You _what_?"

"Alien whiskey makes me drunk!" The hunter replied.

"No shit. How much did you DRINK?"

"Uh… one, two… four glasses? I think? It all got fuzzy after the third one."

Her brother entered the room, looking at his sister on the ground. "Ok, how did my sister get drunk and _how_ do I get it?"

Raven began running in circles on the floor, making Taiyang follow with his eyes. "Uh…"

"Lady who flies the ship… she's got BOTTLES of the stuff! And I can get married to you AND Summer! Yay!"

Qrow and Tai shared a look. "Any idea what she's talking about?"

"She's _your_ sister."

"Riza said * _hic_ * that under Federation law… me and Summer can marry you! At the same time! Makes me happy! Like the saurian brandy that's as old as the troll commanding the ship. Can I have more?"

Qrow looked at Tai as Raven went back to doing drunk things. "How much do you bet this is the alcohol talking?"

"I don't know."

Qrow walked past Raven's, who was giggling, out of their quarters and to Riza's door, who was at the door with a phaser rifle. "You're getting my brandy over my rotting corpse."

"Not interested in your booze. Raven's saying weird things about marriage and—"

"It's all true." She then slammed the butt of her rifle into Qrow's face and locked her door. He wasn't phased.

"Apparently, trolling runs in the family."

"QROW! GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!" Tai shouted. "HELP! HELP!"

"WEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Qrow turned around… and saw Raven randomly teleporting across the halls of the ship, with Tai trying to stop her, before she vanished…

"WHAT THE HELL?!" He heard Riza shout from within her quarters.

"Thank you~!" There was a weird, loud… wet sound, and Raven appeared again as she once again started teleporting… before Riza's door opened again, with the woman blushing bright red.

"…did she just kiss-"

"Not… A Word…"

"RAVEN BRANWEN!"

Qrow, Tai, and Riza ducked as the captain's thunderous voice roared across the ship.

Raven just kept on giggling.

"What did she do?"

"YOU BRING ME BACK MY BLOODWINE OR I KICK YOUR ASS!"

"That explains that."

"I coooooould… " Raven said, as she opened the bottle downward… only for nothing to come out. "But its aaaaallll goooooneeee…. heheehehehehehehehehehehe….WOPWOP!" And she vanished again.

"BITCH!"

"She'll crash soon enough."

* * *

She did, six hours later.

And Ron promptly whooped her ass afterwards for stealing the only bottle of 2309 he had. He was planning on saving that for the day he got married.

And his order to Rutia?

No anti-hangover meds; she suffers.

And she did.

"My head is KILLING me. How do you recover from the hangovers, brother?"

"What hangovers? I'm always drunk."

"…And life suddenly makes sense again."

"What was all that shit about polygamy, though?"

Raven groaned as she held her head. "Federation law. So many species need more than one spouse, they decided 'fuck it' and made polygamy legal."

"Then why—"

"Most people prefer to be one-on-one, if you get my meaning. There ARE exceptions."

"Oh." Taiyang said, before blinking. "Oooohhhhh…" his eyes widened "OOOOOHHHHH… "

"Yeah, you can marry me and Summer. The captain can marry all three of us when we rescue Summer. So I was worrying for fucking nothing."

" _All hands, red alert: all hands, stand to battlestations! We're picking something up over the Atlantic! Teams STRQ and RWBY, get your asses to the bridge!_ "

* * *

"Sonja!" Ron shouted, pounding his fist against the door. "Open up! We've got a situation!"

No answer. He sighed, what was taking her so long to get out? He groaned, as he extended the tubes from his wrist and accessed the door controls, opening the door. "Sonja what the-" He began to shout… before he looked inside… and saw the very nude Sonja, Nena and Jaden in bed.

"Well, fuck me with a forty foot pole."

All three jumped before covering themselves. "Uh, I—"

"Get your asses out of that bed; we have a problem."

"We're naked!"

"Not my problem. We found the Ethereal mothership and I want all hands on deck."

THAT got them moving as he left, heading for the bridge. "Corpsa, lock weapons on the damn thing and fire phasers. If necessary, arm photon torpedoes."

* * *

"You got it, boss!"

As the _Ra Cailum's_ weapons opened up, Takeshi stood by in the _Firestorm_ to add his own weapons to the mix.

The two ships opened up on the alien temple ship, phaser bursts reaching out, ready to kill…

Only to stop meters from the hull.

"What the FUCK!?"

"What is it Corpie?" Ron asked, entering the bridge. He spotted the ship. "Uh, explain to me why it's still alive?"

"It has shields!"

Ron blinked. "They have something good. Too bad for them. Corpie, load photon torpedoes. Get _Firestorm_ and _Morningstar_ firing as well."

The trio of ships opened up on the massive vessel, pounding away with photon torpedoes, micro-quantum torps, phaser bursts, and Mega-particle blasts from the _Morningstar's_ main guns.

The effect was… underwhelming.

"Oh, COME ON!"

"Well?"

"No damage! We're not hurting it!"

"Cease fire. Call Sheridan."

* * *

"How did this happen?"

"Well, we activated the hyperwave relay." Sheridan explained to Ron. "It detected this hyper-fast cloaked saucer: we informed RWBY. _Apparently,_ Qrow got mad, and knocked it out of the air with his semblance."

"What's his semblance again?"

"Bad luck."

Ron burst out laughing. "Oh, that's golden. Anyway, continue."

"RWBY descended on the site before we could even land a team, and by the time Strike _did_ get on site, we found death, destruction, and a mentally scarred Ethereal." The Commander laughed. "Thing was trembling, curled up into a ball. We took it back and let Vahlen have it. Anyways, we found this psionic device, looks like a floating spikey, glowy ball of purple. Soon after we brought it back, that temple ship appeared. Speaking of which, _why_ is it still alive?"

"Thing's protected by a phase-shunt shield. It's basically invincible from anything short of a black hole, which means it has a _massive_ power generator. It also means that the only way we're taking it out is from the inside."

"You're kidding me. You want to try an attack with _infantry_?"

"It's the only option. The Skyranger can get in with Annette on board: they want her. We can use a dimensional shift transporter to get on board and attack from within to rescue Summer."

"And finally destroy these alien sons of bitches once and for all," Jaden grinned, before glancing at Corpsa. "No offense."

She waved it off. "You mean the Ethereals, not us."

"I'll need volunteers—" Cocking was heard at the back of the bridge, RWBY and TRQ standing there. "Volunteers found. We'll go to that ship and get her back. Rutia—"

"I know, stand by for medical work on people going through dimensional shifting."

"And I'll get the Striders ready," Jaden said with a chuckle. "Oh this is gonna be _fun_ …."

Ron pulled out his G36E, cocking it, standing beside the two teams.

* * *

"This is Big Sky, we're in the air." Annette looked at the PADD she carried, with a picture of Ron on it.

She had only known him for a few days…

But she'd fallen in love with this bastard.

He was honest, to the point and generally liked to piss off people that he didn't like, mostly those attacking his family.

And they both hated it when people got into their heads.

Violently-so.

' _I'm falling from a man from a Sci-fi show…_ ' She thought with a short chuckle. ' _Greeeat…_ '

The Skyranger stopped rising and shot forward. Annette looked at her magnetic SCAR-H and cocked it.

So be it. Ron was right: all was fiction and all was reality.

And she was going with him.

Now, with her abilities, the psi amp, and the abilities granted by touching the Gollop device, she was ready.

The Ethereals were about to get fucked by Annette Durand and her soon-to-be boyfriend.

* * *

 **Takeshi Yamato: And so we come to the XCOM 1 finale, but with a few changes.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Time to get a move on. Who wants the Uber Ethereal to die painfully?!**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Oh, of course I do. But this time, it's not only Ron with the mindfucks, it's _Ruby_ as well. The multiverse will learn to _fear_ the silver eyed warriors.**

 **117Jorn: SICK E'M GIRL! *Ruby is released, silver eyes glowing as she charges towards the Ethereals***

 **Ron the True Fan: Anyone got popcorn?**

 **Ja Ne!**


	28. Chapter 28

**Ethereal Temple Ship**

* * *

She did not remember much. A word… Rose?

Yes. Summer Rose. That was her name.

Two men and another woman...they were important. Very important. And two young girls…

It didn't matter right now. She had a mission.

" ** _They are coming. Destroy them_**."

Her silver eyes were blank, surrounded and swallowed by a purple glow.

* * *

A flash of light signalled the arrival of what Qrow was nicknaming Team Death.

Because RWBY and TRQ were bad enough. RWBY, TRQ and Ronald Pinkerton?

THAT was _beyond_ bad.

Raven puked, much to their commander's amusement. "THAT'S for stealing my bloodwine. Do you have ANY idea how hard non-replicated 2309 is to get? Martok drank most of it when he was Chancellor of the Klingon Empire."

"Ugh… It's—it's not _only_ the bloodwine." Raven retched again.

Ron sighed. "As much as I like to see you suffer, I need you to kill things." In one swift motion, he pulled out a hypospray and injected it into her neck. "That should keep you going for a while. Now, I am going to go make a scene while you guys get Mrs. Rose. Good luck. Oh, and Ruby."

The silver eyed reaper looked up.

"Send them to the darkest pits of hell."

"Yes _sir."_

Ruby was wearing the modified Icarus armor, sans helmet, plus red hood, built from the remains of the Archon King. It improved her already excellent speed and maneuverability, and gave her armor and shields.

Weiss wore the Serpent suit (sans the head), which was infused with a Dust substitute, enhancing her semblance to great degrees, also giving her access to the Frostbite grapple. Thin men had panicked at her sight.

Blake wore modified Ghost armor, allowing her to literally become a phantom in the shadows, thanks to her semblance and the suit's abilities.

Yang wore the RAGE suit, which was _very_ fitting. Not only did her semblance enhance her hits, but the suit did now as well, giving her enough power to punch a Sectopod across the _entire_ Temple ship. Not that she couldn't: her hair was like a dragon's breath.

"Leave the mechs to me. I want a fucking army to back us up." Ron's tubules extended from his knuckles as he walked into the ship.

He had work to do.

* * *

Annette stepped out of the Skyranger, looking around.

The place was typically alien and needed to be destroyed.

But her mind wandered back to an encounter she had with Cassandra Ptolemy a few days ago.

* * *

 **USS _Ra Cailum_ \- 87 hours earlier**

* * *

' _I never thought I'd be on a ship from Star Trek..._ ' Annette thought as she walked out of the medbay after a checkup with Rutia. It honestly did feel like she was on a set for the show itself, as she walked towards the turbolift.

But the lack of sound crews, the lived-in feel and all the little things that said 'no, this is real' killed that idea. This was a real starship.

The doors opened, Annette coming face to face with a tall Greek-looking woman who stood inside. The French lady entered before the doors shut. "Hello."

"I know who you are and I'm _not_ happy to meet you, Durand."

Annette blinked. "And you are?"

"Cassandra Ptolemy, former AI of the ship, girlfriend of Ron Pinkerton, and your worst nightmare."

Annette's eyes widened. Ron had a girlfriend?

"Have you seen into his mind? Seen what he's suffered?"

"I don't need to. I love him and I'm going to make sure he is VERY happy for a VERY long time. What can you offer him, psionic? Nothing but pain."

"Those are the Ethereals. I'm not them." She had used her psionics to their fullest when she was rescuing her friends from the alien barge, and Ron was all but happy to help out. "I wouldn't hurt him, not willingly."

The AI in an Innovade's body wasn't happy with that. She wanted to scare her away, but it appeared that she and Ron shared fearlessness towards everything.

"Stay. Away. From. _Ron_." Cassie growled, poking into her chest. "He's _MINE_."

"He's yours if he says he's yours!" Annette snarled, batting away the offending finger. "And why are you so damn resistant? Federation law allows polygamy!"

"Because he's a one-woman man!"

Annette punched Cassie in the face, resulting in a bit of a fight in the lift.

Cassie still had some connections to the _Ra Calium,_ one of which included turbolift control. The woman shot the lift upward, tossing the bodies inside around.

Annette slammed into the roof of the lift. Shaking off the disorientation, she used the her psionics to bring the lift to a grinding halt.

Which sent her flying back towards Cassie, landing on her.

And into, yet again, a picture perfect accidental kiss.

Seriously, this sort of shit _only_ happens on the _Ra Calium._

Both girls blinked in surprise before they registered the feel of one another's lips.

And realized they liked it.

A thought hit them both: they liked Ron, Ron liked them...

Maybe he'd like to share?

Still, they'd ask him first. They relaxed for a few minutes before they backed off. "Maybe… we should just talk to Ron first?"

Cassie nodded breathlessly. "Yeah… I really shouldn't be speaking for him."

The pair kissed again.

They wouldn't be fighting each other, but they would fight for Ron.

* * *

Another flash of light deposited Takeshi, Larcei, Lily, ROV-R, and the original SPARK unit, Luna remaining behind on the ship due to her pregnancy.

Takeshi was clad in his normal MACO armor, pulsewave in hand and katana at his waist.

Larcei was clad in Ghost Armor, with a Pulsewave rifle and a combat knife.

Lily was in her standard gear, with the addition of a personal shield generator and a Phaser Assault Rifle. ROV-R was hovering behind her, ready to give assistance.

And the SPARK was holding something Lily and Sonja had come up with just for it - a massive assault cannon that was for all intents and purposes a compact Pulse Phaser Cannon, made from one of the _Firestorm_ 's spare cannon assemblies.

There was another flash of light, as a Mechtoid looked up and-

 _CRUNCH_

" _…Ewww, I think I stepped on something,_ " Jaden muttered, lifting the Strider's leg up, taking it off the crushed Alien Sectoid mech.

"Nice work, Jaden! This Strider's first kill and you didn't need to shoot anything!"

" _Huh… yeah, that's awesome._ " Explosions went off nearby. Ron's usual calling card was death.

That was one of the few predictable things about the bastard: that he would kill something and that you couldn't predict how he'd do it.

" _Actual to Assault Two: report in._ "

"Assault two here," Jaden said as he moved the Strider ahead. "We've arrived on the temple ship, and proceeding as planned."

" _Our job is to distract, Jaden: Strike-One needs to get to the center of the ship. Assault-One is searching for Summer. Assault Actual… Well. I'm killing everything._ "

"Making me jealous, Ron…"

" _Just kill the Mutons and Berserkers, you pseudo-bisexual bastard._ "

Jaden groaned. Seriously, again with the questionable sexuality jokes?

' _Oh, screw it._ ' "Well up yours you crimson fear-turkey fucking smartass know-it-all."

 _"Ohohoho, nice. I like bite!_ " And Jaden felt more embarrassed because of that.

They'd have FUN if he were a girl trading barbs.

The team moved ahead, the SPARK and Strider taking the lead.

" ** _So, the enemy has come. The servants of Death._** "

"Death?"

" ** _The killer of our kind_**."

"I think they're talking about Ron."

That got Lily laughing. "Oh, I LOVE that!"

" _Yeah, just before it died, the base Ethereal called me Death. It seems it warned the others. Doesn't matter~_ "

" ** _You have brought the evolved. We thank you_**."

"They're talking about Annette."

Explosions began to pick up.

THAT pissed off their captain. Even RWBY's leader would have a VERY hard time keeping up with that destructive force from the number of explosions.

* * *

 **[BGM: Red Like Roses II with build up]**

RWBY and TRQ noticed the explosions, but thought nothing of them.

After all, they had their own mission.

And it was standing before them.

Summer Rose looked the same as Ruby remembered her, except her cloak was torn at the end.

And the purple glow in the eyes, signalling that she was being controlled by an Ethereal. "Mom…?" Summer deployed her weapon, glaring at them.

She wasn't Summer Rose. This was just an Ethereal controlling her mind, with one mission.

To kill them.

"We gotta slow her down, trap her, or hit her in the head really really hard." Ruby declared, planting Crescent Rose into the deck. "Ice Flower!"

Weiss slid into place, deploying her ice glyphs. Ruby opened fire, working the bolt a dozen times a second, sending ice-infused rounds flying at her mom.

Summer darted around them and started firing plasma bolts back at them.

Thankfully, most of them had personal shields, so they weren't going to get hurt standing around. Still, lazy wasn't something they tolerated.

"Summ, please! It's me, Tai! Don't do this!" Summer didn't answer.

She just obeyed the will of the Elders.

* * *

A sharp blade hacked through a muton elite, and Ron entered what appeared to be a control room.

With his prime target standing before him.

"Ah. The Uber asshole."

" ** _Death_**." It greeted.

"Nice name. I think I'll be keeping it. Nice ship you've got: subspace phase-shunt field to make it immune to external threats, enough robots to conquer most planets… Good thing I'm taking all of them."

" ** _The constructs are of no matter."_**

"I would think again. See, psionics aren't something that's the be-all, end all of things. I'm the most lethal fucker in the known multiverse, but I have my limits. So I have something you don't."

" ** _And what is that?_** "

"Diversity. So… who wants to die?"

Mutons were psionically warped in, regulars, Berserkers, and Elite; a veritable flood of them.

"Well, I guess that's my cue to start a genocide."

* * *

Strike-One arrived in the chamber just in time to find Ron doing what he did best. Mostly killing all of the aliens.

"About time, people! As fun as this is, I'd rather leave a few for all of you!"

"Got it!" Annette pulled out her psi amp, charged her power, and let loose.

A… _rift_ appeared in the middle of the army, ripping the mutons to shreds, tearing their very molecules apart.

" ** _Your power is beyond our expectations_**."

"Maybe it's because you people have PISSED ME OFF!"

" ** _You will join us, regardless._** "

A phaser beam impacted the Uber's head, fired by a cricket.

One held by Ron. "YOU, asshole, will eat shit and die."

Five more Ethereals teleported in. " ** _Not today._** _"_

 _Sheeeee… THRUM!_

Three of the Ethereals vansished from existence as the Strider rolled into the room, phaser cannon smoking. "Forget about me fuckers?!"

Ron grinned. "Annette, distract the Uber, Jaden, deal with the rest! I'll see about the ship."

He sprinted over to a console and injected his nanoprobes into it.

" ** _Your technology is above ours. But no matter. You cannot control this ship_**."

Ron was forced to agree: the ship's controls were psionically based.

No wonder all their technology was inferior: all of it required psionic bullshit to operate. "FUCK! Well, if I can't control your ship, I can still destroy it!"

But then his nanoprobes told him something else.

The ship was powered by a protostar.

" ** _You cannot destroy our ship without destroying your world._** "

He was right. This close to Earth, the protostar would collapse and form a temporary singularity, consuming part of the planet and ending all life on it.

"He's right!" Ron called out. "Annette, we need to kill this thing and then you need to move the ship!"

"Not if he kills us first!"

Ron groaned. Well, he killed one.

He cocked his head, deactivating his aggression inhibitor.

Rage was a fuck of an painkiller.

* * *

Summer was fast. VERY VERY fast. But Blake and Weiss had snare mines that Yang activated, trapping the huntress.

Ruby went for it.

Grabbing her mom, Ruby's eyes glowed bright, enveloping the two.

Using her strange new power, she found the controlling Ethereal and tore it's mind apart. It screamed as it's mind was ripped to shreds, stopping eventually, floating where it was, brain-dead.

The light died down, and everyone could see the two again.

Summer groaned. "Where… Where am I?"

"Mom?"

She looked at the younger daughter. But while she knew who she was, it was vague, distant.

"Ru…" She strained herself to remember her child's name.

"Rub… Ruby. Ruby?"

Ruby grinned. "Yes! Yes, it's me!" She hugged her mother even tighter, crying into her cloak.

Yang and Tai slowly made their way over.

"Where… what happened? Why can't I remember?"

"Remember how you got here?" Summer looked at Taiyang, then at Yang and the ruins of her weapon, destroyed by Raven to make things easier.

"Remember much of anything. I remember names, faces, places… just not anything really connected to them."

"Well then, we'll just help you remember!" Ruby said, pulling her up. "I'm Ruby, and I'm your daughter."

"I know THAT, silly." Ruby pouted, but then the ship began shaking. "What's going on?"

 _"Assault-One, this is Actual: report!"_

Summer blinked. "Captain Pinkerton?"

"Wait, mom, how do you—" Blake put a hand on Yang's shoulder before tapping her temple. "Ahhh, the Ethereal must of told her."

"We have my mom, Captain! She's alright!"

" _Good!"_ Ron grunted as something hit him. " _Contact the ship and get off! We're gonna destroy it, but you need to get clear!"_

Ruby nodded. "Copy that! _Ra Calium,_ eight ready for shunt!"

" _Copy that! Hold on to your lunches!"_

A flash of light, and the reunited teams disappeared.

* * *

" ** _You are pushing my patience!_** "

"What patience? You don't tolerate anything."

Ron roared as he tore the Ethereal's arm off.

"Get out. Of her head!"

It screamed, blood gushing from its' socket. " ** _You will—_** "

"FUCKING DIE!"

The Ethereal threw Ron away, turning to Annette and assaulting her mind. " ** _You will be MINE!_** "

"I belong to only one person!" Annette snarled. "Any you aren't even worthy to shine his boots!"

The powerful psionic lashed out with a dozen attacks, ranging from rifts to bullets to explosives.

"And you and my XO seem to not understand the meaning of 'overkill'. Not that I MIND in this case, but try not to pull this too often, ok?"

Annette gave him a smile before falling to her knees. "I'll be fine. Just need a minute."

" ** _This is not your path!_** " The Uber screamed as it succumbed to its wounds. " ** _This is not your purpose! You need our guidance, for without us, what are you?"_**

Annette stood up and walked to the dying body. "Free." She raised her boot.

The Uber Ethereal died with a sickening _crunch!_

"Satisfying."

The Temple ship began to die, the protostar powering it beginning to collapse, drawing in water from below it.

" _Ra Cailum_ to assault teams: field is down, standard transporters are online!"

"Beam us out! Annette has to guide the ship into higher orbit or the singularity it'll generate when it blows will destroy the planet!"

"Oh, fuck me."

Ron removed his combadge, tossing it to her. "Tap that to activate the dimensional shifter."

Annette nodded, pinning the badge on her. "Wish me luck." She said smiling before she approached the Psionic control device as the entire ship began to shake.

The team beamed out, Annette guiding the ship out.

* * *

"Keep a lock on her at all times!"

Cassie nodded as her man took his seat, watching as the craft rose above Earth, heading upwards, entering Lagrangian orbit. "Subspace activity; shifter's been activated!" A flash deposited Annette on the bridge of the superdreadnought, rolling onto the deck as the ship exploded.

"And fuck you, assholes." Annette panted, flipping the bird at the Ethereal ship as it detonated - before groaning as she grabbed her head "Ugh… my head… "

Ron got out of his chair, kneeling to check on her. "You alright?"

"No." She grabbed Ron and pressed her lips to his, kissing him.

The entire staff watched in horror, KNOWING Cassie was going to react.

She did… just not the way they'd think.

She _giggled_.

"Sooo… Ronny…" She asked, sneaking up behind him, "Me and Annette had a… talk and… you wouldn't mind _sharing_ , would you?"

Ron simply buhed in confusion.

* * *

After the Ethereals were dealt with, the Prime Directive kicked RIGHT the fuck back in.

For the most part: didn't stop them from helping XCOM reverse engineer Ethereal technology. Was barely on par with Starfleet in the 22nd Century, but their psionics were actually ahead of them.

Something they could brag about for once.

"We gave you phase cannons and the _NX_ -class among other 22nd century designs, but I advise that you make ships not based off of Trek." Ron said. "You never know if there are more Ethereals out there."

"Copy that." Sheridan looked around the base. "I have a feeling that this place will be staying around for a bit longer."

"I damn well hope so." Ron shifted forward as Annette hugged him from behind, giggling. The fact that Cassie was open about Annette joining her in dating Ron was scaring the living shit out of the crew, and openly called herself his girlfriend.

To spook them further, she even kissed Cassie on the bridge!

So he had two ladies, just like Jaden. Some members of the crew pitied the poor bastard.

Takeshi just chalked it up to Ron being Ron: the man drew the crazy bullshit like a **_magnet_**.

"Oh, and standard warning…"

"Hmm?"

Ron leaned towards Sheridan.

"Abuse it, I will find out. And when I find out… you will suffer GREATLY."

"Figured that much, Captain. Good luck getting home and thanks for the help."

"Oh, no, thank _you_. You reunited a family. NOW I'm going to make sure everyone gets back to the ship so we can leave."

* * *

Summer marvelled at the starship she stood on board. It was so massive, so advanced… it was unlike anything she had seen before - even more advanced than what the Ethereals had. "It's… so big…" she muttered in awe.

"Yup. The _Ra Cailum_ is super-big, super-powerful… super EVERYTHING!" Summer had to agree. The crew treated this ship like a home.

Main engineering was always a mess, but they never complained, as it actually made work easier.

Raven looked away from Summer, seemingly guilty. "What's wrong, Rae?" Raven angrily snapped her head towards Summer at the use of her most disliked nickname, but that faded before Qrow shepherded Team RWBY (her daughter was a LEADER like she was! It was AWESOME!) out of the room, Blake giving a knowing smile as the doors shut.

"Uh, Raven, there is no need—"

"There is a need, Tai. Summer, you were married to him, but… I was, too."

"I already knew that."

"Yes, well… I had… time to think about this…" Raven said. "And I learned that Federation law… allows polygamy, most people just don't take advantage because they're one-on-one types."

Summer blinked. "Really?"

"It's why the captain now has two girlfriends… and… well… I want to marry Tai again, but you're here and—"

"Ok."

"I understand if you—wait, what?"

"I said ok." Summer said shrugging, "I'm not sure, but I think the only thing stopping me back on Remnant from saying 'marry me, too' was the law." She then blushed slightly "I uh… kinda had a crush on you too, Raven… I just, well… didn't want to… erm… embarrass you or anything… didn't know if, well… you were even into other girls… "

"Uh…" Summer shrugged and kissed Raven on the lips, much to Tai's shock.

And Raven liked it. So much so that she jumped Summer.

* * *

"Congratulations, Yang, you now have two mothers."

"Yeah, Blake, I did before."

The borg-faunus produced a PADD, showing security footage.

Mostly of Summer kissing Raven and Raven jumping on her and making out with her stepmother.

Yang fainted at the sight.

Ruby simply giggled while Weiss smiled happily.

STRQ was back together. And as Qrow was dating Winter… it was now a five-man team.

"I'll go inform the captain. There's a wedding that needs to happen." Blake looked at where Ruby and Weiss were standing, only to find them missing. And with no rose petals.

"…the heck did they go?" Blake muttered, before glancing at Yang, who was still out of it. "C'mon Yang… wake up."

"Two moms… two moms…" She was going nowhere.

* * *

In his ready room, Ron fixed ribbons to his red dress uniform, signifying the campaigns and wars he had fought in, much like the old generals of Earth and, to a much lesser degree, the Admirals of Starfleet Command back in the 23rd Century.

Laying on his couch, and happily, were Annette and Cassie, sleeping, not wanting their new boyfriend out of their sight for the time being.

This serenity was broken as soon as he fixed the last ribbon, which represented that he fought during the Iconian War and kicked some serious ass. There was a rapid knocking on his door, causing him to groan. "Come!" He shouted, as the door opened, as a familiar pair appeared. "Miss Rose, Miss Schnee… what can I do for you?"

"Captain, could you marry Tai with Ruby and Yang's mom's?"

Ron actually froze. "What?"

"We want my mom, Yang's mom and our dad to get married! Now!"

"Uh… did they send you because Raven is still on my shitlist for leaving Yang when she was a baby?"

"Nope! We came to ask if you'd do it! We'll ask them if you say yes—"

"Fine, fine. I'll have a small ceremony ready in a few hours. Would you mind LEAVING? Those two JUST went to sleep and I'd like to escape to my quarters for my last night there alone."

Weiss blinked. "What's wrong with your quarters?"

"They're tiny and I can barely live in that 5x5 breadbox. Those two would never give me rest. I'll be moving into the ACTUAL captain's quarters the day after."

Ruby blinked, but nodded. "Alright," she said. "Well, good night." She and Weiss then left to return to their own quarters.

Ron attempted to escape his ready room, but he was then jumped by his two girlfriends. "You're not leaving us THAT easily, mi amour…"

* * *

Ruby was sad that she couldn't attend the wedding, but she was pleased to know that all three of them were married after they exited a small storeroom that Ron had rigged for private ceremonies.

Her family had not just regained its lost members, it had grown.

And while it'd take a couple of years before she could properly marry Weiss, the two had definitely 'promised' themselves to each other.

"This is the captain. All hands, standby for wormhole shunt. We're leaving." The two watched as the _Ra_ _Cailum_ jumped to warp, entering the wormhole…

And leaving XCOM behind.

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: No more Ethereals and Ron gets a relationship addon.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yep. And time for the next universe. Where might that be? Well, here's a hint: "In their hands bearing cobalt lance and shield, with which to smite down all man's arrows."**

 **117Jorn: Hehehehehe… that means I can bust out some of my favorite toys! *Rumbling in the distance***

 **Ruby: Machines of war!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Unleash the ducks! (AMX 40s roll out)**

 **Ruby: …QUACK! (Hijacks one)**

 **117Jorn: ONWARD MIGHTY STEED! *Mounts a Tiger I and charges forward***

 **Ja Ne!**


	29. Chapter 29

**USS _Firestorm_ **

* * *

Takeshi watched on the viewscreen as the wormhole effect collapsed, depositing them in another universe. "Well, another day, another universe. Here's hoping we aren't dealing with alien invasions threatening all of humanity this time."

" _Ra Cailum_ actual is scanning… nothing to report. We're clear."

"Thank you, God."

While Takeshi had fun flying the ship, it was a part-time job. For one, single reason.

 _Paperwork_. While the Pinkertons were good at dealing with the bureaucratic bullshit fast, Takeshi, despite being married to Luna, Ron's stepsister, was not. He pawned 70% of his paperwork off to Ron on the Ra Cailum; bastard dealt with it in a matter of minutes.

Here? He had to do ALL of it. Rubberstamping could be done by any idiot, but there were forms needing ID: fingerprints, retinal scan, even samples of blood for extreme situations.

And that was 80% of _all_ of the paperwork.

Takeshi wasn't normally one to take too much stock in the supernatural (aside from the perennial pain-in-the-ass that was Q), but he seriously believed that paperwork was a demon from the deepest, fiery pits of hell. He'd much rather be training, flying, or spending time with his family.

And so, he stayed on the _Ra Cailum_ most of the time, only coming to the _Firestorm_ when needed.

When they got back to their universe, or even just made contact, perhaps he could make a deal to have the arrangement made permanent.

Wasn't going to be easy. Still, things change.

Speaking of which… "So, when is someone going to tell Ron that he has a problem?"

"What problem?"

"You know damn well, Takeshi. He's in command of six ships, one of which is a superdreadnought."

Oh, that.

Ron had been passed over for promotion, as he wanted nothing to do with the admiralty. His grandfather was a rear admiral, but he died at Wolf 359. Explained why he refused the orders, plus he liked to piss off Jellico.

But he _was_ in command of a small fleet now, likely to be growing. There was no way he was going to be able to stay just a simple Captain.

* * *

Raven Branwen could not help but flinch every time she saw Summer and Yang.

Guilt was a powerful emotion, as she couldn't shake it, even with two decades of trying with Larcei.

She was a horrible mother. Pinkerton was right to hate her.

And she was reminded of it every time she saw Summer with their daughter. It took all her willpower not to turn and run whenever she saw them together, or even just Yang on her own, and sometimes even that wasn't enough to stop her.

What DID stop her was a greater fear.

If she feared motherhood, then she feared Ronald Pinkerton more. If she tried to flee from this, he would hunt her down and no amount of respect for Taiyang or her family would stop him from taking her head and sticking it on a pike.

He had _so_ many ways to make sure of that.

Still, there were times when she just had to be by herself, when the guilt just overwhelmed her and all she could do was find a quiet corner and cry, always making sure no one could see her in such a vulnerable state.

She was sure Pinkerton always had eyes on her, enjoying those moments of weakness.

Raven left their quarters, heading for the unused holodecks. No one used them for some reason. Upon entry, she activated a program that mimicked their home back on Patch.

"Hi, Mommy!"

And tried to escape her failure.

"Hey, Yang."

From another person's view, it would be stupid to try and live the thing she had run from. For Raven, it was a form of release, a way to escape, but whenever she slipped into it, she would be reminded again that it wasn't real, and she ran away.

This would be her hell, and she deserved it.

* * *

"So, you're trying to make us… Gundams?"

Jaden nodded.

Ron had come up with a classification system for Mobile Suits: General Purpose, Transforming and Assault.

But the class above those was the Gundam-class. He used it as a general term for high-performance machines: the 0 Gundam, for example, was high-spec compared machines of its' era. It applied mostly to high-spec, kick-the-fuck-out-of-shitty-pilots machines.

Like when people referred to the _Ra Cailum_ as a superdreadnought-class ship. It was generalized, non-specific and easy.

"The R&D people have been working overtime and I know all of your have been going through the simulators: you're too good for Hoplites." Jaden told Mark, Noble, RWBY, JNPR, and CVFY.

"So, you want us to not only kick ass on the ground, but space too?" Yang summarized.

"Yup."

Nora Jumped into the air, whooping. RWBY was more reserved: they had zero issues with going into space, but beyond the simulators, the only space experience was the time the MACOs were out for their zero-g combat training exercise.

Yang was sick to her stomach while Blake refused to speak anything but some guttural language that only Brok'tan understood. Ruby had fallen in love with the Mobile suit at first sight, so much so that Weiss had had to kiss her to break her out of chibi mode.

Jaune also wasn't all for it, either, living up to his nickname of Vomit Boy, CVFY, Pyrrha and Ren were fine with it, and Mark was all for it.

Unfortunately, they were all MACOs.

And while the MACOs were the Starfleet version of the Marines, they were also specops like the SEALs, Spetsnaz and SAS of Earth.

And that meant they operated EVERYWHERE: on the ground, on a ship and in space. There was no exception.

And on the _Ra Cailum_ , you were the best or you weren't on the ship. So those who didn't like it would have to deal with it.

"So, I present to you…" Jaden led the group into a darkened hangar aboard the _Morningstar_. "The GN Hunter and Spartan lines!"

Suddenly the lights flashed on, and everyone gasped upon the sight of 19 mobile suits with the hangar. Each one seeming to be uniquely designed, and each one colored each Hunter and Spartan's respective colors, and armed with MS-sized versions of their own weapons.

…and looking utterly, impossibly badass.

"Holy shit." Was the unanimous reaction.

"The first Starfleet-designed Gundam-class Mobile Suits. We're probably not going to use them here, but it's the thought that counts. While we're here, you'll be performing test flights and testing the weapons in the asteroid belt."

Weiss scowled. "So, while everyone else gets shore leave, we're stuck on weapons-testing duty?"

"Don't complain; it took us weeks to design these things and we're still working on them."

"Oh, I'm not complaining." Mark muttered, glancing a hand across the leg of his obvious machine. "You and I are going to get _very_ well acquainted."

"The Spartan gundams are more Spec Ops oriented, being able to bring the heavy firepower when you need it. And you _will_ need it."

"Why us?" Carter asked.

"Six is a pilot and everyone on this ship knows how to fly a shuttle. Meaning you're _all_ getting classes."

"Great."

* * *

Cloaked and hidden, the _Ra Cailum's_ master looked at the surface of the planet. "Well, people… I never thought I'd say this."

"Oh, great."

"It's shore leave time! As long as we can stay hidden, everyone's allowed on the ground!"

"Everyone that looks human, at least."

"Oh, come on, Corpie, a little makeup and a hat and no one will notice!"

"Suuuuuure."

"Alright, rules of engagement." Ron declared. "No energy weapons, no transformables, no uniforms, and you _must_ beat up any bullies you see!"

Ron then grinned before going into his ready room. A minute and a half later, he came out.

Holding a weapon so recognizable that EVERYONE knew what it was, even if they weren't from Earth.

* * *

Takeshi was wearing a dark blue shirt and black pants, his sword hanging from the scabbard on his hip. Luna wore similar clothing while Ron...

"Tell me that's not an AK-47."

Ron, indeed, held an AK-47 in his hands: to be specific, an AK-47 with a Type-2A receiver. Most people mistook the less aged AKM for the actual AK-47, as well as the Chinese-made Type 56. But this was an original-version AK. "It is the gun that WON'T DIE."

"You could drag it through twenty kilometers of mud, leave it in the forest for ten years, and stuff Twinkies in it, and it would _still_ work after a simple cleaning." Luna defended her brother and his weapons choice.

"Kinda of an odd choice if ya ask me," Jaden said, as he, Nena and Sonja arrived - wearing more… early 20th century attire, with Jaden holding what looked like a M3 submachine gun. "Plus it's not very easy to hide… "

"If I wanted concealable, I'd go for a cricket. I'm going for man-portable firepower. And I don't want to lug around an MG3 around all the time: awesome as it is, it's got problems."

"And the M60?"

"The M60 is a near-clone of the MG42/MG3. I'll stick with the shit that doesn't jam as often, thank you. Besides, I'm going on a picnic."

Jaden smirked. "Still getting used to having two girls?"

"If you had your way, it'd be three."

Jaden scowled. "Touche."

Annette walked in, wearing a dress, though she didn't seem comfortable in it, while Cassie wore an aviator's jacket over a shirt and jeans with a pair of boots, holding an RPK. "Ready."

"Guns, guns and more guns. Armed to the teeth for a picnic."

"Oh, screw you both."

"Alright, alright," Takeshi said, stopping the argument before it could get further. "So, just to confirm, Luna, Larcei, Lily, and I are beaming down to that big city with the spire. In addition to standard vacation activities, we'll try and find the history of this world."

"And if I run into assholes, assholes die."

"So standard procedure for you."

"Damn right. Now, if you'll excuse us…" All three walked onto the pad and disappeared in showers of light.

"I get the feeling he's going to troll people down there in ways that aren't going to be fun."

"As long as it doesn't involve us, I don't care," Takeshi remarked as Larcei and Lily came in. "You two all set?"

"Yeah, though it's probably going to involve us eventually."

* * *

Less than an hour later, everything went to hell.

The girls were having a WONDERFUL time before a bunch of idiots arrived.

As such, after a few insults were thrown, they were all dead, via bullets or psionics.

"Plate armor? Really? That was useless against flintlocks. Against Russian firearms, you were fucked." War. He wanted a peaceful, simple day of relaxing normally.

Sadly, he knew the authors had OTHER plans. They always do.

" _Ra Cailum_ , this is Pinkerton: I want a set of anti-armor weapons beamed down here. Now."

" _Sir_?"

"Do it."

A shower of light deposited a set of the most famous anti-armor weapons on Earth on the ground.

The _Ruchnoy Protivotankoviy Granatomyot 7_. Otherwise known as the RPG-7. While useless against any real tanks after 1975, against anything from the 40s would die in one shot.

"One of these days… we need to find a nice, quiet planet." Annette muttered, picking up the launchers. "No natives no nothing… just a quiet beach planet… "

"Fuck beaches. Give me Deinonychus VII any day."

"You only say that because those moons are basically Jurassic Park times a million."

"What can I say?" Ron picked up another launcher. "I love Jurassic Park."

* * *

The Imperial light tank was bulletproof to anything below 20mm in caliber, but the militia forces kept firing their useless rifles as much as they could, hoping that they could damage the running gear or jam the gun mantlet or something.

"WHY! WON'T! YOU! JUST! DIE!" The Gallian militiamen shouted, firing off a rifle-mounted grenade at the light tank, doing little to nothing to stop it though. "This is some cheap bullshit right here!"

The tank paused to fire its low-velocity 37mm main gun, but a screech was soon followed by an explosion, the tank falling apart as the ammo in it exploded.

"Whoops." A man holding a long tube with handles and a scope jumped down from a building. "Did I do that?" A brunette with a red scarf on her head pointed her rifle at him, but he simply pulled out a strange rifle/machine gun hybrid. "Drop it; I killed that tank in one shot at range and I've got two VERY lovely ladies with fully-automatic weapons on the rooftops."

The brunette paused for a moment, then lowered the gun. "Who the hell are you?" she asked.

"The man who saved you from a VERY pathetic tank." He pulled out a large object, fitting it into the breach of the tube before they heard more rumbling. "Another tank? Good, I need something to kill." The next target rolled up before he took aim, firing it and less than a second later, the Imperial tank was a smoking wreck.

The redhead, and several other soldiers, just stared. That tube functioned just like their lances did! What kind of weapon **_was_** that?

"What, never seen an RPG before?" He loaded another round.

"N-no," the brunette replied. "The closest thing we have is anti-tank lances - they may be modeled after medieval lances, but the tip can fire off much like what that tube thing was doing."

"…Who the hell designed your anti-tank weapons? The further you are from the tank, the safer you are! Does no one get the idea of a tank weighing at LEAST 3 tons and no one can survive getting run over by one?!"

"Well, we usually try to aim for the sides, but… sometimes we're not that lucky."

"Again, lacking common sense in the weapons department. Melee range sucks."

Another tank came into view, but before Ron could reload or anyone else could react, a bigger tank in a blue and white paint scheme came barreling through a wooden barricade.

He reloaded the RPG, hearing the sound of yet another tank. "Oh, look, more prey."

As the tank came into view, though, the brunette smiled. "That's ours, tough guy," she said to Ron. "Definitely a lot better than those Imperial Tanks we've been fighting."

"Not really. I can still one-shot it."

"Wait, what?"

"I've seen more heavily armored tanks and this thing can STILL kill them." Her jaw dropped.

There were BIGGER tanks? With more armor?

And that tube can still kill them?! "That tube—"

"Ar. Pee. Gee. It stands for Rocket-Propelled Grenade launcher. Use the right name, girly."

"If we're gonna use 'right names' for things, mine's Alicia," the brunette snapped.

"Ronald Pinkerton. Get these people out of here. I'll secure your escape."

"Huh?"

"You've got civilians, get them on the tank and get the fuck out. I'll keep the assholes off your backs."

She didn't argue as she tank rolled by.

Then the man grinned.

' _Ra Cailum_ , I need a hologram of a certain ship on the waters.'

"Sir?"

'I have an idea. Time to be me.'

"An absolute troll?"

'Damn right~!'

* * *

Takeshi walked through Randgriz, seeing a very large amount of stupid.

He was thankful Ron wasn't here: there would be a great deal of time, effort and LOTS of bodies, but he would purge the stupid from the city.

A lot of the stupid seemed to center around racism, as it seemed that everyone with bluish-black hair with the shawls got glares or other nasty looks from a lot of other people. He had sent Larcei and Lily to find a library, see if they could find any reason for this - once they knew the _why_ , they could figure out a way to stop it.

If not, they could always sic Ron on them.

The threat of death was always a way. Look at the Iconians: he might've ended the war more or less peacefully, but the _Ra Cailum_ was always a high-priority target for them as he blew up lots of Iconian ships.

Still, he was a last resort.

For now, they just had to look into the area, see what the situation was. And it looked like the situation was war, if what some of the local newspapers had to say was any indication.

And knowing Ron, he was going to be in the middle of it, helping out without really breaking the Prime Directive, as the Ra Cailum's engineering crews were being put on overdrive, putting together early to mid-20th Century weapons of war.

As they arrived at a library, though, that was furthest from their minds.

"Well, time to find out the history of this world," he said to Luna. "Even if we weren't wanting to blend in, it'd be a good idea to do this, so we don't blunder into the same issues this world has for whatever reason."

"Ron's going to be flooding the Science Department with alternate histories by the time we get home." Takeshi glared at his wife. "Come on, Takeshi, he'll give you all the credit, if only to avoid the promotion that the President is going to shove into his face."

Takeshi groaned at the reminder of what happened to Kathryn Janeway, who, the second she finished her report, was given a massive 3-rank promotion to Vice Admiral. There wasn't a person on that crew who wasn't promoted.

Except for the _Equinox_ survivors.

They were STILL in New Zealand.

"That doesn't help much, because it means **_I'll_** be the one with the promotions, meaning I'll get stuck with the paperwork!" he growled.

"Well, you COULD do something stupid and get demoted to commander again…"

"Don't give me ideas."

* * *

Hours later, they had a few answers.

Hundreds of years ago, something happened in the area where, in their universe, was a massive forested habitat.

Here, it was desert, caused by something called the 'Darcsen Calamity'.

According to what the history books said, the Darcsens (the people with the shawls and blue-black hair) once tried to conquer Europa, and devastated much of the landscape, only to be stopped by the mighty Valkyrur. Warriors from the north, brandishing shields and spears wreathed in blue flames. They stopped the Darcsens, and were hailed as gods. The Darcsens were then stripped of their last names and sentenced to work in the Ragnite mines as penance for their crimes.

"Something doesn't seem right," Takeshi said as they left the library.

"It screams cover-up. Reminds me of the bible in a few ways. And every other religious text."

"Ron is going to be PISSED," Takeshi stated. "At least it explains all the racism. Though that means we'll need to find out the truth of the matter before we can start to fix the problem."

And the truth was not here. It was out there.

In the wastelands. Which explained why Ron wanted to make tanks, planes and warships.

He was insane, but there was method to the madness.

* * *

Mark found himself in a… peculiar situation. Ron had pulled him from the Gundam testing put him in command of a ship.

And not a starship. A naval ship.

The ship he found commanding was one of the more recognizable ships of the twenty-first century.

It was a _Nimitz-_ class supercarrier.

And it wasn't even _real_! Ron had some specialty holo-generators that he used to construct the vessel, giving them a mobile runway to launch the new weapon he planned on introducing to this world.

Air power. There were no aircraft on this planet.

Not _one_. They had tanks, but tanks were invented by the British and the French ten years after the first flight of the Wright Flyer and had become so advanced that by World war I, they were flying in combat missions.

This was 20 _years_ after that date. There should have been biplanes in the air, at _least_.

Still, thing came in handy: the _Khepri_ was tearing asteroids apart and producing aircraft of 30s vintage.

"Well, not what I expected to be commanding. By the way, _why_ choose me?" Mark asked Ron, looking over the flight deck from the bridge. "Why not have Corpsa do this?"

" _You're human, she's not and you're bored out of your mind_." The captain was right. His Gundam still needed work and he was tired of fighting Qrow.

And getting his ass kicked.

"And what about the rest of your human or human-looking crew?"

" _They said 'fuck no' and you didn't_."

"Well, I'm in it now. Just tell me where to go and I'll go."

"The closest port. Just get that Vimy ready." The aircraft in question was the Vickers Vimy, an enhanced version of a WW1 bomber. It crossed the Atlantic, the first aircraft to do so.

It had a 2000 pound bomb load, too.

"Copy that. Setting course, heading out at fifteen knots."

It may be a carrier, but carriers gave excellent strike capability to any fleet or operation. He would be content with that.

* * *

The lead Imperial commander was unhappy. Some asshole with some long-range anti-tank weapon had knocked out half a company of tanks.

A long range anti-tank weapon? That was insane! How the hell did that work?

And he was strolling through their lines, laughing!

"Send a squad down to deal with that nuisance, and tell them to keep moving, don't let him get a bead on them. We can't lose to one man!"

Droning was heard from above. "What the hell is…" He looked up. Then saw something above.

Which was dropping… something.

It would be the last thing they ever saw.

The area lit up like a fireworks display as the bombs detonated, leveling everything around the point of impact and spreading fire even further, destroying the Imperial command structure, wiping out the reserves, and demolishing what was left of Imperial morale.

* * *

"Well, so much for a peaceful vacation… " Nena pouted, looking at the newspapers involving the current 'Second Europan War' between the 'Atlantic Federation' and 'The Empire', with Gallia caught in the middle and now being invaded by the Empire. "Just our luck to pop in the middle of _another_ war…"

"I think Take once said something about the crew being cursed to forever live in interesting times," Jaden said, shaking his head. "The more I'm with you people, the more prevalent that fact becomes."

A loud horn was heard out to sea, where the three soon sighted a ship.

Jaden was disappointed that it wasn't the classic CVN-65 USS _Enterprise_ , but Ron wanted to use a larger, more modern carrier.

And in his words _'Enterprise_ was wasteful: eight reactors? Even _Nimitz_ had only two and barely needed the other one'.

So a _Reagan_ -subclass _Nimitz_ was chosen as their holo-ship until the _Ra Cailum_ finished the more real ships.

"Well, certainly knows how to make an entrance," Jaden muttered, "A little subtly wouldn't hurt once in awhile though..."

The decks were covered in canvas and wood aircraft from WW1: he saw Sopwith Camels, Fokker Dr1 triplanes, Gotha bombers… And in the air was a freaking Vimy.

The ship pulled into Anthold's port, coming to a brief stop.

"Well, I guess you'll be in charge of being the rep."

* * *

Half an hour later, Jaden walked up to the gangplank of the warship, just as a squad of Gallian militiamen arrived, rifles at the ready, if shakily.

"Is… this ship… yours?" One of the Militiamen asked, pointing up as the colossal warship.

"Yup." Jaden informed, sticking with the story he knew Ron would come up with. "Captain Takeo, from the Hosho mercenary guild. Sorry for the startle, but we needed to come in silence - didn't want to risk radios being intercepted by Imperials."

"You know about the war?"

"We landed people last month via airdrops. We've got some information as to what's goin' on and we're here to help. My commander is probably in the middle of the action."

A fat man soon entered sight, wearing the same uniform as the regular military, only more… gaudy. "What sort of warship is THIS? There's no guns, no anything, just… those things on the deck!"

Sonja looked at the moron. "This, dumbass, is called an aircraft carrier. It's at the top of the most dangerous warships on the water, only equaled by the modern battleship."

"It has no _weapons!_ " The fat man shouted, "How could it-" Suddenly two aircraft launched from off the deck of the vessel, taking towards the skies - stunning the militiamen and regular army staff.

"Several hundred vehicles capable of dropping bombs right atop your enemies at will?" Jaden asked, grinning. "Sounds pretty fucking dangerous to me."

The two aircraft then dropped paper from the skies onto the city. Leaflets were a basic way of communicating their purpose. "Those Harts are our basic light bombers. We're still working on our more advanced aircraft, but we've gotten some of our heavier stuff on the ground."

"Like what?" Jaden grinned.

"Squeak."

* * *

The earth rumbled before the massive form of a vehicle approached.

It had sloped armor, total coverage, and a MASSIVE gun.

It had a misleading name.

It was called… Maus.

Its sheer appearance alone caused the Imperials to pause… wondering what in the hell was slowly crawling across the ground towards them. An Imperial Medium tank turned its main gun, and fired at the Maus…

…the round bounced harmlessly off of its armor.

The Tank stopped. And its turret turned to face the offending tank…

 ***BBBRRRROOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM***

…and suddenly the Medium tank was _flipped over_ , converted into a smoldering wreck.

"HOLY FUCK!"

"RUN!" More people fired at the supertank, but nothing hurt it.

Lancers got close, but, like Ron said, up close and personal with a tank was stupid, as the tank kept moving.

And crushed them under its' tracks if they weren't machine gunned down by the coaxial MG34.

Watching was the newly-commissioned Squad 7. Including the Edelweiss, the tank commanded by Squad leader Welkin Gunther, and the one that had shown up to help the defense at Bruhl, even if it wasn't truly needed.

"Jeez…" one of the Squad's Lancers, Largo, remarked. "Whoever these guys are, their tanks are powerful - never seen something with armor to just shrug off another tank's shot, let alone _flip_ the offending tank with return fire."

The tank crushed an armored car, making it explode.

"That tank scares me. You think that thing is connected to the people we found in Bruhl, Welkin?"

"Overwhelming firepower and heavy armor? I think so."

"How is that even _functioning_?" Isara asked, watching as the Maus ran over a truck. "It has no Ragnite radiators on the outside! And what's with those fumes coming out of it?"

"You can ask them all the engineering questions later, sis," Welkin said, before climbing back into the Edelweiss. "They may not need it, but it'd be impolite not to help them out! Squad 7, move out!"

The Edelweiss moved forward, firing her 82mm low-velocity gun at a light tank before it fired back, the 37mm gun bouncing off the armor. The Maus' turret turned towards the light tank. The massive gun did not fire, but a smaller barrel fired, the gun punching through the armor.

They didn't even SEE the shell.

Welkin knew what this was.

A high-velocity shell.

 _No one_ had tech like that yet! Not even the engineers back at base!

Just who _were_ these people?!

On the turret was a symbol.

An arrowhead with a notch, and a five-pointed star within it and a circle surrounding it.

As two things flew overhead, Welkin knew things had changed.

* * *

 **117Jorn: *King Tiger Tank rolls up* IT'S TIME TO GO WORLD OF TANKS ALL UP IN HERE!**

 **Ron the True Fan: And more than that… (Whistling is heard before shells impact a massive Ratte) warships beat tanks.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: And so, we arrive in the world of Valkyria Chronicles. This was intended to come two stops after RWBY in the original, but as you can already tell, we've mixed up the schedule a bit for the rewrite.**

 **Ruby: So… why'd you rewrite it?**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Don't look at me.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Not going to talk about it.**

 **117Jorn: Till next time…**

 **Ja Ne!**


	30. Chapter 30

**This is an emergency broadcast to all Fanfiction writers and readers.**

 **Attention: Unless something is done, the Internet will die on December 14th 2017. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai plans to end Title II of the Net Neutrality law which protects the Internet from big internet providers in america like AT &T, Verison, Time Warner, COMCAST, exe. from exploiting the Internet unfairly upon us. They are attempting to end the concept of an open, free Internet. **

**This will effect EVERYONE on Fanfiction if this comes to pass. It will affect Fanfiction, Gaming, Steaming anime/movies, it will end the idea of freedom on the internet unless you can afford to cough up extra cash to the aforementioned corporations who will essentially RUN the Internet - and this will not just affect the American Internet, but this law - if passed - will have global ramifications.**

 **This must end now.**

 **The AngryJoeShow has recently posted a video regarding this subject, in his video's discription there are a number of links to websites to go to in order to protest this bill. The FCC Chairman has proven that he does not care about the opinion of bipartisan agreement that Net Neutrality should stay, so we need to MAKE him listen. Protest online if you must, but protest in public if you can. Protest the FCC Building, protest Verizon - the company Ajit Pie once worked for as a Lawyer, and likely still has ties too.**

 **This will affect everyone on all political grounds: Republican, Democrat, Independent, Conservative, Liberal, Capitalist, Socialist, EVERYONE will be affected by this, and we must make our voices heard as one. We have the right to speak out against an injustice in the system.**

 **Please copy and paste this message to your pages, to your own fanfics, send it to whoever you know - bring in your family and friends if you feel as if they will listen. Because the only way we can stop this change is together.**

 **#savenetneutrality**


	31. Chapter 31

**Barious Desert**

* * *

The Edelweiss was no longer a top-of-the-line combat vehicle, the 82mm gun no longer useful as anything but infantry support.

It was replaced as in that role by the KV-1S and Pz5 Panther, which had HV guns and heavier armor, but Welkin used it as Squad 7's command vehicle. The Edelweiss was more than just a tank for them - it was part of who they were now. Thankfully Hosho understood that, and the engineers Sonja, Nena and Jaden ensured to divert some resources to ensure the old tank could still keep up with the likes of their own vehicles.

"Hmmm… I think we pissed the Imps off." Jaden mused, looking through a set of binoculars at the… _sizable_ number of Imperial tanks that were brought to the desert.

"I didn't think they would bring this much of a force…" Welkin muttered. "Those ruins must be important somehow…"

"Well, we're about to rain on their parade then," Jaden chuckled, turning around. "The Panzer division will attack first… I'll be leading the charge."

"Is that a good-"

"I _know_ what I am doing, Welkin… " He smirked. "I used to live… in a World of Tanks."

Welkin blinked at that declaration as Jaden walked out of sight.

* * *

 **BGM "Panzer Battalion" by Sabaton**

The Imperials continued to keep an eye out, looking or incoming forces… they expected an attack from the Gallians, or the Hosho forces… however an officer looked into the distance, spotting what appeared to be a sandstorm on the approach. He paid it no mind at first… until the rumbling began. He took another look, and soon realized this was no sandstorm… rather a storm of a different kind.

It was a storm…a panzer storm. 85mm and 75mm shells flew into the imperial tanks, followed by mortar shells, which destroyed tanks and other vehicles, as well as did their usual things to infantry.

Everything was dying, but Jaden knew that if they wanted to live a long, healthy life, they would never have joined the military.

Putting on the uniform was basically a 'shoot me' sign.

And people demand to know why that was bad. "Ok, now what? The idiots are getting shelled and bombed."

"And having fun out to sea. Nena's in command of the flagship." Jaden smirked.

Poor bastards.

* * *

An Imperial naval task group opened fire with 5-inch guns and 13-inch cannons as they attempted to hit and damage the approaching… monster. But their guns could not reach it, but it _could_ \- for every time there was a black poof of smoke that appeared from the beast, at least four Imperial ships were reduced into nothing but scrap metal before sinking to the bottom of the sea.

In the distance was a massive vessel, larger than any naval ship created by Gallian or Imperial hands. Its guns raised at the ready in a full broadside, positioned with the rising sun placed behind them, both blinding Imperial gunners, and giving the vessel an awe-inspiring appearance. Its Name?

IJN _Yamato_.

The nine 460mm guns, twelve 155mm secondaries and 24 5-inch cannons unleashed death out of the range of the Imperial warships, one broadside absolutely destroying a dreadnought in one volley while their enemies did nothing to damage her.

Nena shook her head. This was too easy: the _Yamato_ was the deadliest battleship ever built. Upgraded, even the air attack that killed her Terran counterpart would have been nothing more than an annoyance. Jaden had come up with an upgrade to the ship, bringing her to the same standards as _Iowa_ in the 1980s-90s, only with bigger guns and heavier armor. But that sort of upgrade was beyond Gallia: they didn't even have computers, let alone CIWS.

She laughed a bit as she recalled how much Jaden wanted to transform the ship into the Space Battleship _Yamato_ like from the anime he watched, but knew it couldn't really work… not unless it was built from the ground-up as such. Though he was still _very_ happy to see _Yamato_ , space battleship or not.

The almighty battleship drove the enemy fleet deeper into the sea, where more shells impacted them from another direction. The cause was a smaller, cruiser-sized ship.

On Earth, her most famous sister was Admiral Graf Spee, for this was an _Admiral Hipper_ -Class battlecruiser.

Another massive battleship fired her guns, larger than the _Hipper_ but smaller than Yamato. She was the second-most deadly battleship of World War II: the USS _Iowa_ , or rather a ship of the class.

Her massive cannons fired in salvo, sending endless waves of fire to slam into the helpless WW1-era warships.

The phrase 'turkey shoot' was an understatement. This was like the German wehrmacht storming into Poland.

Smarter minds had made these ships, and the Imperials were experiencing it.

* * *

The flag of Gallia flew from the strange, highly advanced warship. "The _Ibuki_ -Class, designed to lead cruiser and destroyer formations on patrols. Armed with 10 guns and multiple torpedo launchers, she's lethal to any ship below and above her displacement. Only a battleship with long range guns can take on this ship and live to tell the tale. And we have the most advanced warships ever built. Soon, the _Yamato_ and other heavy weights will enter your ports to secure sea superiority."

"This is… incredible…" a Gallian admiral muttered. "Never would I have dreamed Gallia having such mighty vessels…"

"That's… _Hosho_ for ya," Nena informed smirking, "Building cool shit wherever we go."

Explosions were seen out to sea. "And that would be a battlecruiser doing its' job." Ron handed a pair of field glasses to the Admiral. The ship had four twin-barrel guns and 16 casemate weapons. "What the…"

"Kongo." Nena explained. "14 inch rifles to take on any smaller target and light enough to flee from anything heavier."

"…Seriously, where and _how_ do you come up with these?" The Admiral asked incredulously.

"It's a trade secret." Nena grinned.

* * *

 **Barious desert**

* * *

Takeshi stepped out of the armored car, sighing. He hated deserts.

Hot, cold, space, deserts sucked. Especially with the sand. It's rough, coarse and irritating… and it gets everywhere.

But he was a Starfleet officer, not some prissy moron who was also a bad poet. He could tolerate the sand.

Especially since he wouldn't be out _in_ that sand very long, as he looked up at the Barious ruins.

Looking like some kind of shell (he heard Welkin talking about something called a dreadnautilus - man was a _serious_ nature geek), the azure structure of the ruins stood atop a hill, and were apparently some kind of Valkyrur temple. If there was any information about the truth of the Darcsen Calamity, it would be there.

A full squadron of Il-2s flew overhead, the Stormoviks being the most heavily armed attack craft on Earth prior to the introduction of the A-10 Thunderbolt II. No Imperial armored unit would get close without their approval.

And Ron's standing order from the XCOM universe still stood, so none were left alive.

More Bf 109s flew CAP, loaded with bombs and fuel tanks.

Their commander wanted nothing less than absolute dominance.

"No offense to the people here, but their weapons kinda suck." Jaden commented, looking over an Imperial SMG. "Ron's gonna have a fit about them sooner or later… "

Whistling was heard before 60cm shells from a Karl Garat landed in the Imperial camp.

"Correction, he already knows and he's pissed."

More shells fired on the camp, setting it on fire. "VERY pissed."

"Yeah," Takeshi remarked. "Let's just hope he leaves this temple alone while we figure out what's in here."

Another 60cm shell crashed on the enemy position, leaving no doubt that Ron wanted to destroy.

And oh, FUCK was he destroying. The Karl Garat's mortar was the only weapon whose caliber was bigger than the _Yamato's_ main guns.

With superior tactics and positioning, not to mention actual aiming devices, that thing could destroy cities and armies.

Not Takeshi's problem at the moment, as he, Larcei, and Lily entered the ruins, Luna having to stay behind due to her pregnancy. They were joined by Welkin, Alicia, and Faldio Landzaat, a friend of Welkin's and a local archaeology major.

"So, every single history book refers to the Darcsen Calamity the exact same way?" Takeshi asked.

"Pretty much," Faldio replied. "It's pretty much the accepted history of Europa, though there are some who think of it as little more than a myth. Why?"

"Doesn't that seem strange?" Takeshi asked again. "Back home, we have a saying. 'History is written by the victors.' This means that the most commonly-told history of a war comes from the winners of that war. But the losers often tell their own tale of the war, and even if it's harder to find, it's still there, and usually paints at least a slightly different picture than the account of the winners, if not very different. The fact that there's only one historical perspective is… kind of strange."

"Maybe there's nothing but the accounts being the same because they're the only ones."

"Maybe, but this screams coverup and we hate coverups. We want the truth. And Ron's probably going to kill the idiots that keep up the myth bullshit."

"Your commander is an angry man."

"Not _all_ the time. He can be a decent guy, but if someone makes him mad, any way, shape, or form, the person who makes him mad usually ends up dead."

Falido hmmed as another shell landed on the Imperials again. "You may be right."

"May be? I _am_ right. Ron is an angry bastard. And he's venting using _massive_ explosive shells. He's probably loading the shells himself, bare handed."

"He can't be that strong."

* * *

Ron shoved a 60cm shell into the breach, cackling. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

* * *

"You'd be surprised," Takeshi replied. "Anyway, let's get in there."

"So… who wants to go into the creepy, dark temple first?" Jaden asked as the group approached the structure.

The universal reply was 'not me'.

Eventually, they all entered as a group, and found that as they went further in, even as the sunlight from outside faded, there was still enough light to see, even though there were no lamps or candles or anything.

"This is unreal," Takeshi remarked. "Are… are the walls themselves glowing?"

"I'm starting to think the Valkyrur _might_ not have been from… you know… _around here_ …" Jaden stated, giving Takeshi a knowing look.

"Doubting it. No sign of alien landings." Jaden looked at Takeshi before he gestured to the commbadge under his jacket. "Universal translator's been reprogrammed. Ron's a troll that way; I could talk about space and our real origins all I want and they won't know."

"Why am I the _last_ to know these things…" he muttered. "But still… just because there are no signs, doesn't mean it's not possible… the way they describe the Valkyrur as god-like beings sounds an awful like how ancient civilizations would describe another, more advanced one. Like those Iconians you told me about."

"Yeah, well… Not in this case." Takeshi cautiously pulled out and activated a tricorder, muting the sound as he scanned the walls. "They're impregnated with ragnite. Explains the light. Come on." Takeshi led them down the corridor of stone, Jaden cocking his StG44. While the Gallians had adopted the AK-series as their standard issue AR, Jaden preferred the smaller StG44.

There was something to be said about the granddaddy of all assault rifles. Yes, it wasn't the best, but it was better than any SMG. Plus Jaden thought it went better with the rather WWII-esc era they were in.

Eventually, they reached a dead end with a spiral motif, and a statue nearby.

As Welkin and Alicia chatted with Faldio about the Valkyrur, the multiversal wanderers gathered near the spiral relief. "Looks like a dead end," Larcei remarked.

"Only it isn't," Lily replied, scanning with her tricorder. "It's some kind of hidden door - the corridor continues a bit farther past here, and seems to open into a large descending chamber… and I'm reading two lifesigns on the other side."

"Human?"

"Mostly. One's human, the other's 70% human, 30%… something else." Jaden didn't like the something else. On the other hand, they COULD call Ron down at any time to deal with it. Pattern enhancers were wonderful things.

"Well, we'll need to find a way through this door," Takeshi stated. "We could wait for the locals to leave, then phaser the thing open…"

"Well, we could try Open Sesame-" Jaden began to say, before Alicia stepped back as the door slid open. "…holy crap did that _work_?"

"Not exactly," Larcei replied. "I saw her touch the thing, and it opened. No idea what she did."

Lily quickly scanned her. "She's giving off similar readings to that one lifesign further in - 70% human, 30% something else. Maybe it's some kind of genetic lock?"

"Maybe," Takeshi replied. "For now, let's not worry about it, and head in. Looks like the locals are doing the same."

* * *

Out to sea, the Imperial Navy was… getting its' ass kicked.

The _Kongo_ was being a REALLY big dick about it, using its' main guns to pound the enemy into submission.

And it only got worse from there, as the ship's commander was ballsy enough to sail within 20 kilometers of an Imperial port for a battleship's primary, if rarely used, role.

Shore bombardment.

It was hell for the Imperial defenders as _Kongo_ rained high explosive shells on the fortress, blowing what was previously thought of as one of the best defended ports on the shore to pieces.

More 356mm shells landed shoreward, causing fires.

The Gallians had no intentions of creating an empire, but if they did, with these weapons, they could. But any threat to Gallia would be taken out.

And as _Kongo_ was joined by the 16 inch guns of the USS _Montana_ , it was being eliminated.

On another Imperial ship, a dreadnought, they tried to attack the two superwarships, but they were going to have their parades ruined.

She was built of the same class whose lead ship had dominated the Denmark Strait and sunk HMS _Hood,_ she was a beast that had the Imperial dreadnought in it's sights. _Bismarck's_ 15 inch guns punched holes through the inferior warship's armor belt, causing her to flood.

The Gallians were now masters of the sea.

* * *

"...It's a giant self-propelled gun." And a ripoff of the ISU-152, no less.

It was escorted by several mediums, but they were no match for the KV and Panther. Let alone the Maus.

"Well to be fair, it's got more armor than a ISU-152… and fucking bigger." Jaden admitted, as the team assembled outside the ruins after their encounter with Maximilian and Selvaria within - now watching as a massive supertank slowly moved towards them. "Still… bulky as hell."

"And no turret. What idiot designs a front-line vehicle whose main armament is fixed?" Jaden could name the designers of the M3 Lee and many others, but they didn't have time for that.

"So, RPGs for the big motherfucker. The warheads will knock out the tracks so it can only fire in one direction. Which will be wherever the hell we're not." Largo looked at his RPG-7 launcher. It was light, easy to aim and use...

But it lacked that essense of knighthood. Still, the damn things were better at taking out more and more tanks then lancers before. "So… assault teams clear out the enemy infantry before we move the lancers in and shove rockets into that big son of a bitch."

"And let the Sturmoviks finish it off with cannon fire, bombs and rockets."

"And keep an eye out for that silver-haired woman," Takeshi informed. "I have a strong hunch the only thing that could stop her would be a tank or a plane." Or their 25th-century gear, but that was off the table unless they wanted to violate the Prime Directive.

Jaden looked at the silver-haired woman through a pair of binocs, seeing her holding a lance and shield. "Lance and shield… Valkyrie, much?" Then he had an idea.

"Welkin… how hard is ragnite?"

"I cannot believe you're asking me that question."

"We don't use it; something more sustainable and powerful. Answer the question."

Wilken hmmed. "Well, it's super-hard as an ore—"

"Can it survive a shot from a 82mm?"

"Yeah, one of our tank rounds wouldn't do squat. But yours might."

"Well, we're about to find out." He said, glancing towards one of the aforementioned tanks. "LET 'ER RIP!" He called out as the Maus rolled forward.

* * *

Selvaria Bles stood in front of the formation, lance at the ready.

Sadly for the silver-haired warrior, her weapon was SEVERELY outclassed.

Ragnite, while as hard as steel, isn't invulnerable. It can be destroyed, just like everything else. And when the monster tank intelligence called 'Maus' approached, she prepared to lance through it.

The tank, instead, fired its' main cannon. Selvaria quickly made an attempt to deflect it, but she REALLY fucked herself on this one.

See, the 128mm gun of the Maus is almost equal to the five-inch guns you see on NATO destroyers and fires at a similar speed. And the shell is high-explosive, meaning if that thing hits ANYTHING, it will explode and burn through up to 200mm of rolled homogeneous armor. The Lance is not that thick except near the base.

Meaning anyone reading this already knows what's going to happen to her main weapon, but we'll spell it out anyways.

It impacted and destroyed it with an explosive force that could punch through the hull of a frigate.

Selvaria's eyes widened as she was sent flying backwards from the raw kinetic force of the blast, only her Valkyrian powers saving her from being blown to bits. ' _H-How?!_ ' She thought as she rolled to the side - avoiding another shot from the tank, before raising her shield to fend off from another strike.

The 75mm shells lacked the force of the massive 128, but it was enough to push her back when the shell hit.

By no means was it easy for the Gallians: out of date as the Imperials were compared to them, the Imperials still had more people and as a man once said, quantity is a quality all its' own as Imperial grenades landed on their positions.

"These mercenaries continue to annoy. Selvaria! We're leaving!" Another 75mm shell impacted her shield, making her crash to the ground. She managed to get back up again, and followed Maximilian as he and the rest of their troops left the area.

BOOM! Whistling was heard before a 60cm shell hit the stragglers in the retreating Imperial force, destroying most of the survivors. Maximilian had learned something today.

Valkyria were not immune to conventional weapons. Make a gun big enough and put enough explosives in it and you could destroy their weapons. And once their weapons were gone…

He looked at Selvaria, now weaponless.

They were useless.

* * *

"She was a Valkyrur. I know it."

"Uh, aren't they sorta, I don't know, unstoppable?"

Jaden scoffed. "Nothing's unstoppable. Even Ron can be stopped if you try hard enough."

"And you have proof of that?"

The Gundam pilot shook his head. "Nope. Because apparently, no one has EVER tried hard enough."

As no one had tried using a supernova or at minimum a warp core breach to kill him, that wasn't trying hard enough. Hell, Jaden was even working on a way for Borg tech to be made immune to omicron radiation, which would make him more unkillable compared to other Borg.

"Point taken," Takeshi replied. "We might want to check Alicia, as well - she read the same as that Selvaria woman, and if that door was designed to only open for the Valkyrur…"

"You think she's one of them?"

"Thinking, at this point, is idiotic. The door opened to her. Logic leads only to one place: she's one of them."

Logic was a bitch, as Ron loved to say. As Sherlock Holmes once put it, if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains is the truth, no matter how improbable. If the door only opens to Valkyrur and Alicia opened it, she's a Valkyrur.

"Hopefully she won't have to worry about it, but we might want to tell her about it just so she's aware." Takeshi then smiled. "On a less serious topic, have you seen how close Alicia seems to be with Welkin?"

"Oh, I noticed. And I think Ron is encouraging it." Jaden gestured to nearby, where Ron had dragged the rest of Squad 7 off for combat drills.

By that, we mean 'one-sided ass-whoopings'.

"He's a prick."

"A romantic prick. The _Ra Cailum_ DOES have another nickname, Jaden."

"That being?"

Takeshi chuckled.

"The Love Boat."

Jaden sighed. "I can see the reasoning behind it, with all the couples," he remarked. "And trios, and so on,"

"Yeah, some races have rather interesting marital groupings."

"All of which cross over into every race in the Federation because you're so goddamn open-minded."

"Complaining?"

"Hell no. I wouldn't be with Sonja or Nena that way."

Takeshi chuckled. "Yeah," he replied. "Anyway, we'll need to see about helping get those two together, even as we look over the info in the ruins."

After everyone had cleared out of Barious, the _Ra Cailum_ had beamed down several research teams to study the ruins, though they'd had to cut some holes in the ceiling to get access to the large center chamber.

Not a problem, as they had learned a few things.

The Valkyrur were little more than thugs: they conquered the region with the Darcsens resisting. All but one tribe fought them, the one defecting to the invaders.

Takeshi was disgusted, comparing them to collaborators from the Second World War. So, the victors rewrote history as they saw fit.

Ron's opinion… well, he wanted to shove a nuke down there and blow it up.

They were still learning things, though, including how the one collaborating tribe of Darcsens had been entrusted with some sort of Valkyrian superweapon - some kind of mega-lance known as the Valkof.

That said, the only lead they had was Archduchess Cordelia gi Randgriz, supposedly descended from the Valkyrur.

So, back to Randgriz.

And Takeshi was just hoping Ron wouldn't kill everyone in a rampage.

* * *

 **Takeshi Yamato: Well, that escalated pretty quickly.**

 **Ron the True Fan: You call that escalation? Escalation would be 'Ra Cailum, sic em'.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: True that. All the bad guys die!**

 **117Jorn: Unfortunately that is likely not to come to pass… or will it? *maniacal laughter heard***

 **Ruby: Hehehehehehehehe~**

 **Ja Ne!**


	32. Chapter 32

**Randgriz, capital of Gallia**

* * *

The amount of pain certain people were going to be in could only be rivaled by the Terran Empire's agonizers as Ron flew a Bf 108 Typhun towards Randgriz, which now had a roughly prepared airfield.

"Someone needs to be shot."

"Come on, Ron, Cordelia didn't have anything to do with this. You're going to kill a 16 year old girl?"

"Now, Jaden, you should know me better than that. She is an innocent victim of her court. Her advisors and other assholes, on the other hand, will be shot, drawn, quartered, and BURNED alive for propagating their ignorant swill."

" _That_ we can agree upon," Jaden nodded. "Though maybe we could do that one thing… what did they call it when you dipped someone in hot tar and cover them in feathers? They did that in the… 18th? 19th Century?"

"17th, actually, and it's called tarring and feathering. It was used up until the early 20th Century. I like the idea, though."

"Thought you would."

He pulled a lever, dropping the landing gear as they came down to the ground. "Takeshi, you deal with the idiots in the civilian sector, Jaden and I will have a nice long talk with the regent."

"Understood, boss," Takeshi replied. "Restrictions?"

"Non-lethally if you can, but really? I don't fucking care right now. I'm not in the mood for subtle."

"Gotcha." That was proven as Ron pulled out an RPK with a drum magazine. And a LMG isn't subtle. He was in the mood for murder.

On the other hand, ignorance was something he hated and these people were propagating it.

Takeshi figured there were some in the civilian sector who weren't idiots—like that Irene Ellet woman who always tagged along with Squad 7—but they were likely in the minority, and even if they weren't idiots, they were kept from learning the truth _by_ idiots.

They would be correcting that problem as they dealt with the idiots.

* * *

In the skies over the Gallian border, a squadron of I-16s were in the air. But they didn't have Gallian Air Force markings.

They bore the symbol of the new Imperial Air Force, as these planes were copies of an I-16 stolen by a Gallian defector.

They were perfect copies, if rushed ones. The only difference?

The pilots were poorly trained.

" _Huh, didn't think they'd build planes so quickly,_ " Spoke a pilot of a Fw 190 bearing Gallian markings as they flew behind and above the Imperial aircraft, the sun to their backs.

The Gallians, however, had more advanced aircraft: the Bf 109G was now replacing the E model, which, in turn, was replaced with the FW 190A. The Fw 190 was faster, more heavily armed, agile and generally better than any fighter.

" _So… who wants to go first?_ " Another Gallian in a Fw 190A asked. " _Report it, or intercept them now?_ "

" _May as well… they could be scouts, last thing we'd want is let the Imps have eyes in the skies._ " Another pilot said.

The four-plane formation dove in, firing their 50 caliber machine guns, tearing one of the 16 planes apart, even setting it on fire.

As the I-16 is mostly made of wood, it was more than likely.

The remaining I-16's began to scramble away, trying to figure out where the attack came from - flying like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off.

In other words: childs play.

Two more I-16s fell, but that was simply the end of their easy flight.

30 minutes later, one Fw 190 was trailing smoke, but still capable of flying while all of the I-16s were on the ground, as smoking, flaming wrecks.

* * *

"Politics. I hate politics." The Gallians winning the war caught the attention of the Atlantic Federation, who were VERY interested in their new warships and aircraft.

"Preaching to the choir, Ron." Jaden said, rolling his eyes with a smirk. "Even people who say they _like_ Politics, deep down loathe them."

An Atlantic Federation military officer approached Ron and Jaden. "Ah, Captain! I would like to—"

"Eat shit and die? Please."

Jaden resisted laughing at the look on the poor bastard's face as they walked past. "Nice one."

"Borg brain helps. So, what do we know about the regent?"

"Well, he's pretty much been doing all the political shit in Gallia, and all dealings with the AF." Jaden informed, looking at a notepad. "But he tends to promote officers due to lineage and loyalty rather than tactical skills… that General Damon being a prime example of _that_ shit."

"So, we kick him in the balls and deal with the duchess directly."

"I don't think that's going to work."

"I insulted a Klingon chancellor into making a public apology to the Federation for 5 years of war. It'll work."

Jaden paused for a second. "You're insane and making me question many things."

"Mostly your own sexual preference. Don't worry: this'll pan out."

* * *

Archduchess Cordelia gi Randgriz sat on her throne, holding a ceremonial spear and in her royal dress with the headpiece which left only her face exposed, an emotionless expression there, as always.

She had always kept her emotions suppressed. Hidden. Much like her bloodline. It was the only way to keep herself from blowing up at her various courtiers and her Regent—not to mention potentially reveal the secret of House Randgriz.

That was one of the few things her parents had told her before they died—the truth of House Randgriz and history in general, and to keep it all hidden. Though with all the changes going on in the world, she wondered if it was a good idea to keep it a secret much longer.

If only she could meet one of these mercenaries directly… though she doubted Regent Borg would let that happen.

Little did she know the decision was about to be taken right out of his hands.

The doors were kicked open, the leader of the mercenaries standing there with his booted foot having kicked open the doors. "Knock-knock, motherfuckers! We came, we saw, we kicked its' ass! Just like I'm about to kick someone else's ass if I don't get an answer I want to hear!"

She impassively looked at the merc leader, his second in command following like a lost puppy. He was wearing his typical outfit, but carried a new machine gun on his back.

"Captain Pinkerton! What in god's name—"

"Speak my name and here I come." Borg blinked before Ron pulled the machine gun out and shoved the butt into his face. "I'm pissed and in the mood for murder! So, who wants to talk about the Valkyria? You've got five seconds before I start shooting and trust me, I'm a VERY good shot with everything I touch!"

While she did her best to maintain her emotionless mask, mentally she was shocked. Why did he want to discuss the Valkyria? Did he find out the truth somehow?

"…How dare you-" Suddenly Jaden stepped forward and kicked Borg in the balls, actually sending the man an inch or two into the air before he felt to to the floor in a heap.

Upon seeing the sight, Cordelia had to tighten her lips to avoid letting out a giggle of approval. She had been wanting to do that very thing for _so_ long, but to _actually_ see someone else do it…

"What is your malfunction?!"

"What?!" Ron grabbed Borg's head and smashed his knee into his face.

"Do I have to unscrew your head and screw it back on right?! I asked you a question, fuck for brains! You had best answer me, otherwise, I will remove your eyes with a rusty spoon, make you EAT them, then stick my thumbs into your head before I SKULLFUCK YOU!"

Jaden raised a hand. "He's done it before! It wasn't pretty and I don't want to see it again!"

Cordelia's resistance was fading.

On the other hand, Ron WAS a Borg.

And with the Borg, resistance was futile.

And to prove it, Ron pulled out a VERY rusty spoon.

"I wonder how your eyes will taste." And the way he said that so casually finally did it.

Cordelia began laughing. First, quietly, then louder and louder. Finally, it became a gut-busting laugh that caused her to double over on her throne.

"And my work is done. By the way, lady, your hair is showing." Cordelia froze. Her headdress was secure. "I have VERY good eyes. Nice color, by the way. A bit fucking hypocritical, but hey, what can you do?"

Jaden gave Borg another kick, making sure he wasn't listening. "Don't worry, M'lady - we won't tell anyone, don't have a reason too… now that we kinda learned the truth about that big, giant lance you've got hidden away, and the history around it."

Cordelia blinked. "How… did you figure it out?"

"We're not idiots, Duchess. Where is it?" Cordelia blinked again at Ron's bluntness. He wasn't bothering with the usual niceties, he was talking to her as if they were equals.

Actually, they were: he led the mercs, she led a nation. "And what will you do with it?"

"Destroy it. Lady, I have bigger toys at my disposal that make that lance look pathetic. I could wipe out this city with a command. And while I can prove it by using that weapon on the Imperials, I'd rather not. Nuclear weapons are so hard to manage."

The Princess was a bit… taken aback by his statement. She saw no deceit in his eyes… so she didn't really have much choice. "The tower of the castle," She informed, glancing up. "The castle was built around the lance to protect it… "

"Good enough. I'll have my people deal with the damn thing before I nuke it. And you… you have to do something about your appearance."

"If the people know I'm…"

"A normal human being? Fuck em. Valkyria aren't all they're cracked up to be. The second the main gun of a tank can destroy one of their famed lances, they became obsolete. And guess what? We did JUST that in the Barious Desert."

Cordelia was shocked. She'd heard rumors that the Empire had had a Valkyria in their ranks, but the fact that they'd beaten one? That was news to her.

"Now, if you'll excuse us, ma'am…" Ron then walked up to her and tore the headdress off her head, revealing her dark blue hair.

"We'll be leaving."

"Captain!"

"What? You look like an idiot wearing this thing. You look better showing off who you are. It shows confidence."

As they left, she pondered his words.

* * *

Meanwhile, Takeshi was dealing with the idiots with the Darcsen bullshit.

He was reminded too much of the Nuremburg Laws, and while he didn't share Ron's unyielding rage for such idiocy, he WOULD deal with the idiots.

And besides, he had orders from Ron.

As such, he left a lot of moaning bodies in his wake—mainly people who either refused to listen or were harassing Darcsens.

Luckily, there was one person who not only listened, but actually believed him.

And like he'd thought, it was Irene Ellet, that reporter who had 'embedded' herself with Squad 7, and was in town on errands.

 _"Pinkerton to Yamato."_

"Which one?"

" _Don't be a smartass, Take. The tower is the fucking lance. We're going to lift it out and I'm going to destroy it._ "

Takeshi paused. "How?"

" _Ever listen to Sabaton? And not the fitting tracks Cassie usually plays_."

He nodded. "Ah, yes, you're going to nuke it."

 _"Ragnite is_ barely _as hard as steel in the lance state. So, it won't survive a nuke._ " As Takeshi watched the Maus' main gun destroy Selvaria's lance, he had no argument.

Now speaking of her, what was she going to do without her weapon?

* * *

"Ron, I want to take a look at that thing."

"What can you do with that thing? It has zero use to a normal human being."

"At first glance, maybe." Jaden admitted, "However… this ragnite substance impresses me, and the way these Valkyrian weapons are made from the most purified examples of it gives me ideas… I've already got an idea to use ragnite with a GN Drive to see how it might affect its power output. Plus… if we could capture that Selvaria girl, we might be able to figure out how to allow regular humans to use that kind of firepower… sure the Lance and shield aren't exactly… modern, but I could probably come up with something more closer to Starfleet standards given the time."

"Well, it's out of their hands. Still—"

'Ra Cailum _to Pinkerton._ '

Ron facepalmed. 'What is it?' He thought back through his neural link,

' _We're picking up an energy signature approaching the city. It matches the one Commander Takeo faced at the Barious Desert._ ' Ron grinned. The bitch was on her way. She might've been disarmed, but she was still a threat. A threat he wanted to face to test himself against.

He hadn't had anything difficult to pit himself against since he was assimilated. For reasons he failed to understand, he wanted to face death, conquer it and prove himself superior.

He knew it was stupid, but he couldn't help himself.

"Well, well. I'll deal with her. Pinkerton out."

Jaden blinked. "What?"

"The bitch is coming. And I'm going to deal with her."

"Ron, that is REALLY stupid."

"I know." He admitted, shrugging."But I can't help myself. I want to face death and spit in its face. It's instinctual."

Jaden rose his brow at that declaration, before shrugging. "Well, I can't stop you so… go sic 'em Ron." He said.

The captain cackled.

* * *

"You're joking. He's facing her."

" _Nope. Said so himself._ " Jaden confirmed.

Takeshi sighed. "This is nuts," he said. "I mean, he's always sought tough challenges that have a likelihood of killing him, but this? This is unreal!"

 _"Wait, he's done this? A_ lot _?"_

"Before he was Borgified, he fought Gorn barehanded. AFTER, he faced down whole squads of Klingons, Gorn and even Iconians."

Jaden was silent for a moment. " _…He is a death seeking badass._ "

"Yes. He is."

* * *

Selvaria Bles' eyes narrowed as she approached her target. At Barious, she faced down a tank that had a gun so powerful it destroyed her lance.

And her worth, self and to the Prince.

He was tired of the failures, it was time to show the Gallians what happens to those who challenge the Imperial Alliance.

She would enter the Gallian Capital… and use her Final Flame - destroying the city.

She felt betrayed. Her Prince, her beloved, was telling her to die. But he was the only thing she had, so she would.

"Hey, bitch." She spun around, finding the leader of the mercs, hands in his jacket pockets. "So, I heard you were the most dangerous bitch in the world." He grinned. "Wanna prove it?"

Selvaria's eyes narrowed as her Valkyrian powers flared around her. "You." She growled.

He bowed, mockingly. "Ronald Pinkerton, here to kick your ass back to the Valkyria Calamity."

Selvaria scoffed. "Please. You're only human, you can't beat me."

"You see, that's where you're wrong. I am not _just_ a human, and I can very well beat you. I'm just here to see how long you last before I _end_ you."

Selvaria growled as she drew her sword. "We'll see about that." She stated, and she shot forward.

Ron just stood in place, allowing Selvaria to approach as she brought down her sword…

 _CRACK_.

The Valkyria blinked as her sword was… snapped in two.

Selvaria went flying as something hard hit her across the face, sending her spinning to the ground. As she stood up, she spotted a sword gleaming in Ron's hand, a bit of her blood dripping from it's pommel.

"How? Steel can't break ragnite!"

"This is not steel. It is a tritanium/duranium alloy with a monomolecular edge. It's over thirty times stronger than diamond, and can cut through one of _my_ tanks." To Selvaria's surprise, he sheathed it. "But that was just to prove a point. Now, I kill you with my _bare hands!_ "

Selvaria cursed. She wasn't in the middle of the capital, but she was close enough. "We'll see… about that." She muttered, before her body began to ignite with blue Valkyrian flames.

An orange beam impacted her chest, fired from a small device in Ron's hands. "I'm sorry, you wanted to commit suicide? Not on my watch, bitch." Selvaria's flames faded away as she began to fall unconscious. "Nice fucking try." She struggled to stay awake, but she couldn't as something was pinned to her back.

"Ra Cailum, lock onto my commbadge and energize on my mark." She felt another heated impact before falling completely unconscious.

* * *

" _Target secured. Bitch tried to kill herself._ "

"Clearly she didn't know who she's fucking with." Jaden chuckled, as he walked the halls of the Randgriz palace with the rest of the Hosho security detail.

" _She'll stay on board the_ Ra Cailum _. I want you up there to make a countermeasure to her abilities: until she's calmed down, I want zero risk to the ship._ "

"The ship is basically indestructible, Ron: what can she do?"

" _…Ask about the_ Yorktown _. Then talk to me about indestructible. Pinkerton out._ "

The channel ended, and Jaden sighed. "Looks like I'm heading back up to the ship," he remarked, glancing at the security teams. "Continue watching over the castle, and keep an eye on the Princess, I think von Borg might try something against her with the Feddies."

"Easily done." A pair of Willys Jeeps drove into the castle grounds, a full squad of MACOs in standard fatuges exiting the vehicles. If it weren't for the uniforms, Jaden thought he would be looking at Union Marines.

Except they were MUCH more deadly and more ruthless. He would know: he'd seen them in action.

"If the Feddies pull a move, they gonna get _fuucked_ … " Jaden giggled, before tapping his commbadge as he vanished in a show of light.

The security teams nodded. If the Atlantic Federation tried anything, they would be… _dealt with_.

* * *

"Come on…" an AF Special Forces operative muttered, as he and another one of his comrades disguised in Gallian gear carried the unconscious form of Cordelia away. "Move her to the truck!"

"Security is tighter than intel said…" the second man said. "You'd think Borg'd tell us if he increased security…"

"They're not Gallian: they're mercs from overseas. Literally: we have no idea where they came from. And they've got super-advanced weapons that make ours look… holky."

"…Holky?"

"Yeah, as in our gear sucks compared to theirs!"

One of their men fell to the ground, blood leaking from his mouth.

Another technological marvel in terms of weapons: the suppressor.

More of the soldiers soon fell, the bullets coming with no audible noise as they dropped them with one shot each.

Silent weapons.

The duchess was under guard and with silent guns. The last man soon took a bullet to the head.

Up above, Luna smirked, lowering her De Lisle carbine as she racked the bolt.

About the only action she could do at the moment, due to her pregnancy, but then again, long-range sniping like this was relatively safe, anyhow. She sent a message to the ground troops, to return Cordelia to her room.

Things were getting interesting, and she was looking forward to getting involved in her husband's attempts to matchmake Welkin and Alicia the next day - another activity that wouldn't put her unborn child in danger.

* * *

"I should have you shot, Borg." The Baron looked Ron in the eye, flinching. "You either allowed them in or you were incompetent in your security measures, because when my people fuck up, I know it!"

"Even if I had, which I hadn't, you wouldn't be able to do anything about it." Borg stated, "You are mercenaries, you're mission is to defend Gallia and provide security detail. You do not have the authority to take the law into your hands."

The doors opened, two officers carrying an unconscious Cordelia into the hall, much to the horror of many Gallians. "Strike two, ass-for-brains."

"That proves nothing!"

"Proves that you need to be shot for incompetence at the very least. And once she gets up, you WILL be shot. Repeatedly." Ron marched out of the room.

Borg simply sat down. He had no proof, just circumstantial evidence. It would take more than that to get him into trouble - and he can just as easily pay off the investigators.

Metallic scraping was heard as Ron returned, dragging a massive metal container, with a strange weapon hanging from his shoulder.

"With THIS wonderful weapon!"

"What the hell is that thing?!"

"It's a goddamn minigun! I call it Reaper!"

After a few seconds, those in close proximity to the Baron suddenly held their noses, as a foul stench began to spread.

"Figured. As soon as this stupid war is over, we're leaving! I suggest you think about if you want to stay, because I see a few people that might want to leave this stupidity behind! Because that shit's so bad, I'm tempted to unleash something so bad, it makes the Valkryia look pathetic standing next to it!"

"You wouldn't."

" _Try me_ fuck-for-brains. _PLEASE._ "

He was serious.

Borg fainted. Much to Ron's amusement.

"I love my job."

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: Yes, he does.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: And so, we have dealt with Selvaria and are dealing with Borg, and the Valkof is about to be dealt with, too.**

 **117Jorn: What will this mean for the future of VC? Find out next time! :D**

 **Ja Ne!**


	33. Chapter 33

**Unknown location**

* * *

Selvaria groaned as consciousness returned to her, her head throbbing in pain as she tried to remember what had happened. She remembered activating her final flame, Pinkerton then… nothing… was this heaven? If so, why was she still in such pain?

"In case you're wondering, no, you're not dead. You're just in blinding pain because Ron is a dick. To be fair, you WERE going to use something akin to a fucking nuke, so…" She shot up before looking around. The bed she was on was comfortable, the walls a solid metal with a mirror and sink in an alcove. The cell had no bars, allowing her to look at Jaden Takeo, second-in-command of the merc company. She scowled, rushing at him, but she hit an invisible and painful wall.

"Forcefields. They're pretty good at keeping things in. And painful," Jaden informed. "So… I suggest _not_ running head-first into that again."

"Wha-how?!" Selvaria demanded. "This is-"

"Impossible?" Jaden asked, "Well. there is a reason for that…" He pulled out some kind of object. "Had Sonja's engineers build your cell here to show off…"

Selvaria was about to ask, before suddenly a door began to open behind Jaden… revealing an entire planet below them, with blue oceans, green lands, and above it the sun, the moon and the stars in the sky. "Welcome to Space."

Selvaria attempted to access her abilities, but nothing came up. "Yeah, we kinda found a way to suppress those. All the medical crap flew over my head, but Sonja assured me that you can't… flame up, as Ron puts it. And let's be honest, we've been taking it easy on your Empire on the ground. If Ron wanted to, he'd destroy it with a flick of his wrist. But he wanted to give Gallia a fair advantage, so he just gave them weapons that were better."

"Y-You ca… it… I…" Selvaria tried to speak, but all this information flooding her head only served to confuse her more.

"Lot to go over, I know - but you don't have to worry about it," Jaden informed. "You're technically a POW, but just relax - you no longer have to worry about the war anymore."

Selvaria decided to focus on that. POW. Ok. "Who am I a prisoner of?"

"The United Federation of Planets and allies. To be honest, Ron wasn't going to kill you unless you proved a clear threat to the crew of his ship."

"His… ship?"

"You're on board the USS _Ra Cailum_ , an _Odyssey_ -Class superdreadnought and the pride of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, or so I've been told. Usually, Ron and his crew build things. But other times, they blow them up."

"He's normally a fairly nice person," a nearby crewmember remarked. "Though he doesn't take any bullshit. But if you make him mad, the bodies start piling up. And heaven help you if he orders that The Button be pushed, or it triggers on its own."

"…Button?" How does a button make one mad?

"Oh, right. Ron isn't… entirely human."

"That is an understatement. He showed no fear of me. If anything, he was gleeful to have a chance to fight me."

"Yeah, he said he was compelled to fight you. It's something he does: he seeks out the most dangerous thing around and tries to kill it. He doesn't even know why he does it."

"That seems… strange," Selvaria remarked.

"Strange doesn't even begin to describe it. He apparently did it even before he was assimilated - after? It just got worse."

"Assimilated?"

"Kidnapped by a cyborg zombie hive mind and turned into one of them. We freed him, but they'd replaced over 70% of his body with machinery. This ties into The Button - he has an aggression inhibitor, which can be turned off at the press of The Button, or turns off on its own if he's properly 'triggered'."

Man-machines?

She was out of her league. "What will you do with me?"

"Nothing, really. Ron's got final say, and he doesn't want to kill you." Jaden said reassuringly. "Once Gallia is secured and the Imperials and AF agree to leave them the fuck alone, we'll be on our way… and take care of Maxie before he goes Hitler on Gallia… speaking of, we need to do that to the whole damn Imperium… "

"You… want to kill him?"

"If we _have_ to. We don't want to kill anyone we don't have to. But Ron is not known for mercy."

* * *

The Imperials faced the wrath of the Gallian Army Militia, now equipped with the best weapons of the Second World War: T-34-85s, Pz6 Tiger Is and IIs, Panthers, ISs, M4A4Ez8s and worst of all…

Buzzing was heard from above. "FLYING BOMBS! TAKE COVER!"

They were called _Vergeltungswaffen_ for a reason.

Because this was revenge for the invasion of Gallia.

The Imperial lines seemed to ignite with fire as the V1 Rockets hit against their forces, as the Gallians just held their ground, firing at any Imperials who try to approach long outside their own tank's firing range.

The Drei Stern were no longer: the Imperial Alliance was falling apart on the Gallian front.

And Maxie boy was getting pissed.

"That's it. We have HAD IT with these mercenaries!"

The mercenaries had defeated Selvaria not once, but twice - the second time preventing her from destroying Randgriz, which would have made taking the Valkof child's play.

Enough was enough. He was taking that lance now.

"Deploy the Artificial Valkyria to the front lines. Those tanks will fall to their power."

"We haven't finished testing them!"

"We do not CARE! NOW!"

Sounds like he's having issues.

* * *

A single T-34-85 fired its' gun, tearing an Imperial heavy tank apart.

Much like normal, these days.

With the weapons provided by the mercenaries, Gallia had stronger weapons than anyone else on the planet. And were proving it to great effect.

The T-34 stopped to provide a doorknocker shot before something hit the tank, burning through the armor.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

The crews didn't survive long enough to report it to anyone but their fellows.

Thankfully, that was all they needed.

* * *

"You know… I was a nice guy by NOT giving away DEWs. Now someone's pulled out superweapons. TAKE!"

"Yo."

"Get the plasma weapons from the XCOM universe."

"On it," Takeshi replied. "May I ask why?"

"Because the Imperials have Valkyria-type equipment. And I don't want to use the _Ra Cailum_ to blow these fucks to hell, so plasma guns will do."

Takeshi grinned. "Got it," he said. "Time to show them they're not the biggest badasses on the block."

Ron scoffed. "There's always a bigger one. Sonja."

" _Yo!_ "

"Make me a fat boy."

* * *

"…WHAT?!"

"What's he asking for?" Jaden asked.

"He wants me to build a Fat Boy!"

"…the Nuke, or the Mini-nuke launcher from that Fallout game?"

" _The_ Fat Boy."

"… the Imps must've _really_ pissed him off."

Selvaria blinked in confusion. "What's a nuke?"

"Think your city-buster attack, but worse."

"…You have weapons like that?"

"We've got weapons WORSE than that. It'll take me a day or two to make the nuke."

"Did he say missile or bomb? Because we're using V-1s now—"

"Bomb."

Jaden shook his head. "Missiles are better."

* * *

 **One Week Later**

* * *

Squad 7 was on another mission, investigating new Imperial activity.

Though they were using some new weapons, though, having been supplied by Hosho in case they ran into some of those new 'super soldiers' the Empire was fielding.

"I thought those guns they gave us before were OP but… _these?_ " Largo hefted a large 'Plasma Cannon' he was told it was called. "They make their earlier shit look _insignificant!_ "

"Yeah," Rosie remarked. "They've got some pretty good stuff, that's for sure."

Alicia wasn't really paying attention, even as she marched along. She was thinking about Welkin, and all the crazy antics that had basically thrown them into confined spaces over the past week.

Though it had all come to a head just the day before when two of the Hosho mercs, Takeshi and Lunamaria, literally locked her and Welkin in a closet for a couple hours.

It was a rather… awkward experience to say the least, as they tried to figure out a way to get out, but… one thing lead to another and… well…

Let's just say they weren't single anymore.

"Don't get used to them: these are the only guns that they're taking back. Captain Pinkerton said, quote, 'you're not ready for them'."

"Seriously?"

"They can BURN through a tank. We are NOT ready for the responsibility of using these things."

Largo grumbled, but it _did_ make sense… heck they didn't know how to maintain them, let alone make more of them. Even Isara was at a loss for how they worked at the moment.

Still, they had a job to do. That being to destroy some massive superweapon pointed at Randgriz, some ship. Of course, they didn't know Ron was about to end the ragnite age as a bomber droned overhead, out of range of all interceptors in the Imperial Air Corps.

"Hey, are we supposed to be getting air support?"

"Do Hosho _ever_ tell us when they're supporting us?" Rosie asked, to which Largo shrugged. They did like to come in… _unannounced_.

Welkin looked at the bomber. It was a B-29 Superfortress, one of the most advanced bombers gifted to the Gallian military. And on the side was the name Enola Gay.

"Uh, does Enola Gay mean anything to you?"

One of their Hosho escorts looked through a pair of binocs to find the name and began panicking. "In the tank. NOW."

"What, why-"

"IN THE FUCKING TANK NOW!"

Hosho members _rarely_ yell like that. So when one does - you best be fucking listening, and Squad 7 did indeed listen as they quickly piled into their tank.

The Superfort dropped a massive form from her massive belly, Welkin watching before he was pulled into the tank, the hatch being shut and secured. "Hold on tight!" Welkin looked through the newly-installed periscope, seeing the bomb explode just above the warship.

The pressure wave was sent their way, but not before Welkin caught the sight of a massive mushroom cloud.

"What… the… " Suddenly the shockwave hit them, and the entire Tank went _flying_ backwards "HEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL?!"

The Edelweiss flipped over, tumbling twice before landing on her tracks. "What the fuck was that?!"

They didn't get an answer from the mercs, but from the skies.

"A NUCLEAR ATTACK!"

"Nuclear?" Music was heard from above, played from the bomber as they heard Ron singing over loudspeakers.

"Dropped from Enola, a city erased, threat of the future displayed! A power unheard of a power unseen, Flash out of nowhere, the sky is burning!"

That certainly fit.

Ron and fucking Sabaton.

You'll be hearing them _a lot_ when he's around.

"That, my friends, was a nuke."

"Nuke?"

"It's shorthand for nuclear. Basically, you split two atoms of a certain material, which causes a chain reaction. More atoms split, causing a massive explosion. All that happens in a matter of seconds. It can either be a nearly limitless energy source or a powerful weapon."

"Wow," Welkin remarked. "I take it that was the weapon form, then. That was…"

"A city-buster. The Valkyria got nothing on the power of a nuke."

"So—"

"No, you're not getting it freely. People have destroyed themselves using this thing without the right mindset."

They could see why.

* * *

Maximilian was ready to tear his hair out.

One bomb. Just _one bomb_ from those damned mercs had completely destroyed the _Marmota_!

And to make matters worse, strange new weapons were being deployed that were tearing straight through the armor of his artificial Valkyria!

How the hell did they keep doing this?!

"We're smarter then you are! And we're not burdened by false religion and shit like the Valkyria!" Maximilian lifted a small beam off at the taunting voice from the B-29.

"Seriously, we kicked them out a LONG time ago!"

Maximilian glared. He didn't know if the pilot could see his hatred, but he still glared.

Well, if he was going to lose, he was going to lose on his terms. Thankfully, the buildings had been fortified and there was still a set of equipment.

He was dead and he knew it, but he was taking as many as he could with him.

* * *

" _Looks like the Prince is going for one last round,_ " Kim reported, looking at the area with the _Firestorm_ 's sensors. " _There's a set of Artificial Valkyria equipment in that building, though it doesn't look like there's anyone_ else _in there. Odds are, he's planning on using it himself._ "

"So?"

" _…You have no problems in slaughtering people, do you, boss?_ "

"Only if they didn't start the war or kill millions of people that had no involvement in fighting. You know me: kill the idiots that started it and were willing to kill, not the people not involved."

" _Understood,_ " Kim replied. " _Good luck, Boss._ "

"I'm not doing anything. It's all on the ground team. I'm going back to Randgriz."

Ron kicked the pilot's seat, the woman turning the bomber back towards the capital.

* * *

As the bomber turned to return to the capital, the ground team continued on its path towards the bomb site, intending to see if there was anything _left_.

"So much destruction."

"Nukes tend to do that." The scientifically inclined Honsho merc informed. "Be thankful that the radiation count is lower than the original Fat Boy bomb."

"Rad—iation?"

"A byproduct of nuclear action. Gamma rays are lethal in high doses: 1000 rems and you're dead."

"Wow," Welkin replied. That was… certainly humbling. Still, he definitely agreed that they weren't ready for this power just yet.

"Captain's absorbed over 8000 rems of radiation. I'm surprised he's not dead and not glowing in the dark."

"Eight times the lethal dose?"

"A small amount of radiation isn't bad for you: in controlled amounts, radiation beams can handle diseases. Even sunlight is radiation: it's why if you spend so long in the sunlight, you get a burn and peeling skin."

Before they could discuss the issue any more, one of the soldiers with them shouted "DOWN!"

Everyone hit the deck as a bright blue beam of energy passed over them.

"Dammit, they had another of those super soldier things?!" Another asked.

"You mercenaries have annoyed me for the LAST TIME!"

The Squad looked at their merc escorts. "The Prince?"

"We need to play a delaying action. I'll call for air support. Engage him, make him mad and distracted. An angry enemy is too focused on one thing to notice anything else. Unless you're the captain, in which case, everything dies."

"Right," Welkin replied. "Well, hopefully these Plasma weapons you gave us will help! Squad 7, move out!"

"You stopped me at Barious, you somehow stopped Selvaria, you even allowed Gallia to march on Imperial soil! You will all pay for this!"

"You're the one who led the invasion of our country!" Alicia snapped. "You brought this on yourself!"

"The Empire needed your ragnite, the Valkolf, everything you have we need! And if we cannot obtain it peacefully, then the only method left is through force!"

Meanwhile, the 'mercs' (in reality, a pair of MACOs) were calling in for support. "This is Zeta-7, requesting air support against a heavy target. Repeat, we require air support!"

" _This is Swallow 1-7. Support request acknowledged. Moving in. Paint the target._ "

Meanwhile, Squad 7 was continuing to keep Maximilian occupied, and had managed to start him into villainous blunder number 47.

He had started monologuing.

They learned some rather interesting information from the monologuing, though. Apparently Maximilian's mother was of common birth, and the other princes and princesses resented her (and by extension him) for their 'favor above their standing', and had launched a 'terrorist' attack against a train they were on. Maximilian was the only survivor, and he obviously wanted payback.

And he'd turned to the power of the Valkyrur to get it.

Sadly, he wasn't getting that chance. The nuke had ruined any chance of turning the war around.

And he wasn't getting any further chances as they heard hissing from above, which turned into a roar from a pair of smokeless J57 turbojet engines, powering a modified Me 262 Schwalbe.

Which had a full load of 16 12.7cm rockets under its' wings and over 800 rounds of 30mm cannon shells for the MK 103 revolver cannons mounted in the nose. Hitler's ultimate wetdream was brought to life by the _Ra Cailum's_ engineers, as they had months to make these things work properly.

And one of the MACOs had aimed a targeting laser on Maximilian, and the fighter unleashed all of its rockets and cannon fire onto the Prince, turning him into nothing more than a red mist.

"Holy shit."

"Yeah, rockets tend to do that."

The first operational jet fighter pulled up, showing her Gallian Air force roundels before flying back towards the bomber it was escorting.

"So…"

"What?"

"Are we useless now?"

"Infantry will never be useless. You just need to evolve to work with better equipment."

* * *

The war was over. The display of total dominating power over the Imperials (and the few Atlantic Federation idiots that attempted to take advantage of the Imperials having the majority of the Gallian's attentions) had forced both sides to the negotiating table. This was also the end of the Hosho aid to Gallia. They _did_ stay for several months to help in Gallia's recovery from the war.

As proven by all of the plasma weapons being returned to the carrier. Some… wouldn't part with them willingly.

Those who wouldn't part with them were often given an ultimatum: Either give the weapons back… or keep the weapons, but leave their homes behind to go with Hosho.

That ended it: fifteen people joined the flood of Darcsens fleeing Gallia, wanting a better life free of the idiots that refused to believe that the Valkyria were responsible for the 'Darcsen Calamity'.

"You're sure you wish to leave all of these weapons in our hands?"

"The warships are yours, as are most of the weapons, Duchess. The plasma weapons are too dangerous in your hands. You're not evolved enough to use them responsibly."

"I understand," Cordelia informed. She had, briefly, been taken up to the _Ra Cailum_ and told the whole story, but she still had to lead her country. She would keep their true origins a secret, though.

Perhaps one day, her people would be willing to accept the truth and perhaps follow them, both in their example as explorers and literally back to their universe.

For now, the Hosho had to leave. The _Ra Cailum's_ journey had to continue.

"Good luck, Captain."

"More to you." Ron walked up the gangplank, entering the holographic ship before he directed the ship to sea.

The warships they had built fired their guns in salute, fireworks rounds exploding in the air as the _Hosho_ slowly trudged off towards the sea.

Standing on the top of the supercarrier, three individuals in particular stood waving goodbye to their friends. "We'll come back eventually!" Alicia Shouted back, as Welkin and Isara waved goodbye to the other members of Squad 7.

"I can't believe we're… actually leaving." Isara said, even as she waved goodbye to the others.

"We made the decision together, Isara." Welkin said, smiling. "You wanted to see their tech, I want to see life outside Europa… "

"And I could learn more about baking out there." Alicia agreed, nodding. "New styles, new methods… can't help myself! Plus we could always come back someday!"

The carrier soon left the shoreline before the passengers were beamed to the _Ra Cailum_ , knowing what to expect before the ship's holographic generators shut down and beamed to the ship in orbit.

On the bridge, Ron sighed. "Time to continue the journey. Riza, wormhole. Let's see where the fuck we go now."

The _Ra Cailum_ and her small fleet entered formation, decloaking just long enough to jump into warp speed.

* * *

 **Redemption's Avenger: Well here we are. Out from a world where we just wreck face into another where we wreck even _more_ face!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Spoilers.**

 **Ruby: No spoilers!**

 **RA: Fuck off, we wipe the floor everywhere we go. It's no spoiler.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: That's certainly true. Everywhere the _Ra Cailum_ goes, shit tends to die. Usually by pissing off the man with the Aggression Inhibitor to the point it turns _off_.**

 **117Jorn: Only idiots piss off the man with the aggression inhibitor… like the idiots we may be encountering in the _next_ universe… which one is that you might ask? Find out next time on… STAR. TREK. ODYSSEY!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	34. Chapter 34

**Unknown location**

* * *

The superdreadnought and her fleet emerged from the wormhole right before, two minutes later, her master screamed.

"GODDFUCKINGDAMN IT! I am getting sick and tired of jumping around the multiverse! We have been doing this for almost a year!"

"Now you know how the crew of _Voyager_ felt." Takeshi put in.

"Don't you start." Ron sighed, rubbing his face in his hands. "The wormhole drive needs time to recharge and we're thousands of years before our time in this universe. Take the _Firestorm_ to the nearest system and see if anyone needs our help."

"Got it, boss," Takeshi replied. "Hopefully it's nothing too bad."

"It's us." Takeshi groaned at the point. Chaos followed this ship like that Sarcosuchus followed him back on Deinonychus VII.

Damn thing was probably wondering where he was.

* * *

"So, I take it the _Ra Cailum_ 's in need of major overhauls to that wormhole drive we accidentally cooked up?"

"Like you wouldn't believe…" Sonja groaned as she groggily looked over the consoles in Engineering. "If we had a Starbase this would be easier… we're lucky enough that we have that UNSC mobile refit station, the _Reboot_ in the fleet… but even with that thing, it's designed for UNSC ships, nothing like the _Ra Cailum_."

"Well that's what us engineers do best - making due with what we've got." Jaden said with a smile. "We'll keep her running till the heat death of the cosmos if need be."

"A bunch of Augments cooked up some way to actually defeat that." Jaden looked at Sonja. "I shit you not—" The engineer then gagged before covering her mouth.

"You ok?"

Sonja nodded. "Yeah, just puked." She groaned. "Had to swallow it again. Not fun. We'll fix the warp drive first—" Sonja then threw up all over the carpeted section of main engineering.

"Jezuz, Sonja!" Jaden shouted, "Haven't you seen Rutia about this?!"

"Been… been too busy… " Sonja muttered, taking a deep breath. "Have… have to re… realign the-" she threw up again.

" _You_ are going to medical, _now._ " Jaden said, glancing at Nena who nodded as the two helped Sonja back to her feet, and helped carry her to sick bay.

The rest of the staff could work on the warp drive.

* * *

Rutia had done many things in her life,

This was the most annoying. "You know mixing two sets of maternal DNA is a serious bitch to do, right? The _Ra Cailum's_ sickbay might have the equipment, but my medical staff is trained more for combat injuries and construction, not this."

The objects of her annoyance being none other than the couple Lily Shen and Larcei Yamato, both standing in front of her, holding hands. "Y-Yes, I know Rutia… " Larcei said rather sheepishly. "We know you're always busy with that… but we just wondered if… when you have the time if you could… well… help us start our family?"

"Well, beyond talking with our new guests, I have nothing to do. Get undressed and into a medical gown."

"Wait, both of us—"

"Whoever the fuck is carrying the baby!"

The doors to sickbay opened, Jaden and Nena carrying a complaining Sonja in.

"This better not be another case of over-oiling. I told those two not to share it but they never fucking listen."

"What?" Jaden asked, before shaking his head. "Nono, Sonja isn't feeling-" Suddenly Sonja threw up - thankfully this time there was a trash bin nearby. "-hasn't been feeling very well lately…"

"I'm fine-" She began to retort, before barfing once more.

"Well, I have SOME idea." She pulled out a tricorder and removed the detail scanner, running it over her before looking at the readings. "Congratulations, dumbasses: she's pregnant. Next patient." THUD.

Jaden was on the floor, twitching. "Guess I found my next patient. He's suffering from a chronic case of stupid." Rutia said, before glancing at Nena. "…just a hunch…" she scanned her next. "Called it - congrats to you too, missy."

THUD.

"…make that _two_ cases of chronic stupid." Rutia rolled her eyes at the KO'd forms of Nena and Jaden, while Sonja just threw up yet again.

"Seriously?"

"You think I would lie about this? I'm a doctor. My job is to heal and diagnose, nothing more."

"At least you don't get on the moral bandwagon like some doctors I know."

"Bashir, Crusher and all those doctors need to be shot for being bleeding hearts. We should be focused on healing, not morality. Now, lay down on biobed four: I'll be with you shortly."

Meanwhile, Larcei and Lily had gotten into a brief discussion, before coming to an agreement. Thus, when Rutia turned her attention back to them, they were _both_ in medical gowns.

At Rutia's raised eyebrow, Larcei chuckled nervously. "Hehe… we… uh… we decided we each wanted to carry a child, at least for this first go-around. Twins, essentially, just split between us. I… hope you don't mind…?"

"When you're bitching, don't come crawling to me. I've been a mother seven times. Pregnancy is a bitch."

Sonja puked into a bag again. "Tell me about it."

"I could abort the baby and save you the eight or ten months of agony. Actually, the captain would pretty much demand it: you're his chief engineer. You can't spend time near anything dangerous pregnant."

"Fuck no." Sonja stated, "I'm having this… and for once… the Captain can fuck himself."

"Your loss." She began working before edging closer to the two. "If anything, we're all going to be suffering together."

"Isn't motherhood suffering for your children?"

"Apparently not for the Pinkertons. Ron practically raised himself and Riza while his mother was gone. He seemed almost naturally inclined to it from what his medical records say. What ones I can get on the bastard, anyways."

Jaden groaned. "What?"

"Him and his entire family have level Omega classification on their medical records for some fucked up reason. Don't ask me: I've never gotten the chance to fully analyze his DNA."

"Really?" Jaden asked, sitting up. "Would've thought you'd had ample time to handle something as minor as that… "

"Not if the records magically delete themselves. I get five percent in and it's all gone. No clue why."

Jaden thought that was fucked up, but he had other problems.

Like being a father.

* * *

 **USS _Firestorm_**

* * *

Twelve Planets. _Twelve_.

Orbiting a cluster of **_four stars_**.

"I do believe this can pass for one of the weirdest galactic phenomena we've ever come across," Takeshi remarked. "Agreed?"

"For us, maybe. But—"

"Yeah, yeah, not for Ron or the Borg. Anything else?"

"Three ships. Armed to the teeth for 21st Century standards with over 300 missile launchers and a lot of fighters. And from the look of things, they're building up energy. Hold it, they're turning. And coming right at us: I'm reading target locks from laser designators."

"Great," Takeshi muttered. "Transmit standard greetings, all known languages. Shields up—we may not want a fight, but it's better to be prepared."

The three starfish-shaped warships simply fired their missiles. "Oh, they heard us, they just don't care."

"Readings indicate all of the missiles are hybrid kinetic penetrators with large explosive warheads—Oh, shit."

"Spit it out, Kim."

"Radiological alarms: some of the missiles are nuclear, in the 60 megaton range!"

While that wouldn't do shit to their shields, it would screw with their sensors. Even Starfleet had issues with EMPs.

Takeshi immediately pulled on the manual steering column, which he had on almost permanent active status, gunning the engines and rolling out of the way of the missiles before blitzing past them, even as the weapons were brought active. He lined up with the first big ship, which looked like a giant starfish (or a pair of Y's stuck together) and opened up with the pulse cannons.

The first warship was nearly cored in one shot, internal explosions tearing it apart. Takeshi sighed.

"Call Ron."

"He's already moving off towards another target. Another ship's about half a lightyear away, apparently under attack. And he's pissed."

"When isn't he?"

* * *

Jaden entered the bridge not long after bringing Sonja and Nena back to their quarters after general quarters was sounded. "So, who's pissing us off today, Ron?" he asked.

"Five ships are attacking another. From the look of things, the one under attack isn't putting up much of a fight, so I call pirates. And I hate pirates that aren't in movies, so I'm going to kill them all. Corpie?"

"I know, I know. Sounding red alert, all hands stand to."

The lights shifted red, as if the klaxons weren't enough.

"Prep your Mobile Suit team for combat. The _Morningstar_ is right behind us."

Jaden grinned. "Oh hell yes," He said, turning around for the door.

* * *

"More missiles coming in!"

"Tiger Squadron is launching now!"

"Intercept those missiles, and fucking kill those godsdamned Raiders!"

The CIC of the Battlestar _Mercury_ was in the middle of chaos as the vessel shook from another impact from the Cylon attack. Rear Admiral Sasha Urei was, quite simply, having a _horrible_ day so far. First it was _Galactica_ being turned into a damned museum piece, and now the Cylons were attacking! And somehow they fucked with the CNP with the ships across the fleet!

The only thing that saved _them_ was the fact Sasha didn't trust Baltar _period_. All the ships in her fleet had dummy CNP's installed to make the inspectors think they switched over. Now they were in the middle of fighting a swarm of Baseships and Raiders trying to bring them down.

"Admiral, we've got another contact! Battlestar-sized, closing at… what the frak, the speed's impossible at sublight!"

"Spit it out!"

"It says that that ship is going at .25c! Nothing can go that speed!"

Even at .10c, particles of dust became dangerous. That was one reason no one wanted to try going any faster.

Then one of the baseships disappeared from DRADIS shortly after the ship slowed down.

" _Actual, Tiger Lead: you're not gonna believe this!_ "

"Go ahead."

" _A big ass ship just appeared and fired some red weapon at the baseship, and now it's gone!_ "

"We saw."

" _No, ma'am, as in there's no_ debris _. Nothing!_ "

Sasha nearly dropped the handset.

Only two things could do that: a supernova or… She actually dropped the set.

An _antimatter_ warhead. That was an antimatter torpedo. That ship used antimatter weapons.

"Ma'am, we're being hailed by the new ship, IDing as USS _Ra Cailum_."

"…patch 'em through… and _pray_ they're friendly," She said as she picked up the phone. "This is Rear Admiral Sasha Urei of the Colonial Battlestar _Mercury_." She said. "To whom am I speaking too?"

" _Captain Ronald Pinkerton, United Federation of Planets starship_ Ra Cailum _. I saw you were getting your ass kicked and thought I'd lend a hand._ " Another baseship disappeared from DRADIS while another was indicated as jump-incapable, like the _Ra Cailum_ had used another weapon to cripple it beyond repair.

Spatial distortions could tear it apart and even the Cylons weren't stupid enough to risk jumping that thing. Moments later the Cylon Baseships began to wink out of existence either by FTL drives, or being obliterated by the _Ra Cailum_.

"I… um… thank you… Captain… " she muttered, wondering why someone with the rank of Captain would be in command of a vessel like _that._

" _You seem shocked. Firepower?_ "

"Well… yes. And your rank. Captain's rather low on our scale."

" _I'm only one rank from flag status, thank you. I'm sending boarding parties over to the other ship; see what we can do with it._ "

Sasha looked at the DRADIS, only seeing another large carrier near the _Ra Cailum_. No shuttles.

"I don't see boarding craft."

" _We're transporting them over using matter-energy conversion/quantum teleporters. We call them transporters._ "

"…We are now at your mercy. Please don't kill us."

Ron only laughed at that.

* * *

"Okay, just get the fighters armed up and-" Chief Engineer Norse began to speak, before there was a strange sound in the air, and the entire hangar deck crew turned around as several individuals just appeared out of thin air. The leading member just glanced around, looking at the stunned expressions on the deck crew's faces.

"…Yo!" Jaden said, waving his hand. "We're from the _Ra Cailum_ , and here to help!"

"Did… did… did you just-"

"Teleport out of thin air?" He finished, "Yeah, I know - crazy shit, right?"

"…How the frak did you do that?"

"It's complicated: you've got birds to move out, right?"

Norse nodded. "We're kinda understaffed; still have to purge the CNP from our newer Vipers. Mind giving me a hand?"

"Sure. The _Morningstar's_ gonna stay behind and give you guys some cover while the _Ra Cailum_ goes off and starts slaughtering things." Jaden said as he looked over the Vipers and Raptors in the hangar. "…nice ships you got by the way… sure I like the Starfleet tech, but your shit looks more like something I'd build… you wouldn't mind if I borrowed some, would you?"

"…considering you could probably just teleport them away, and probably shoot us into vacuum… have at it." One of the Engineers chuckled nervously.

"Not like Ron would do it. You'd have to do something really stupid first."

"Like?"

"Shooting at his ship, shooting at his people, shooting at HIM, shooting at his family, committing genocide…"

"That'll do it."

* * *

Jurgen Belzen climbed off the deck as the _Pegasus_ shook around him. He was not happy about this. Either someone was playing jokes or they were under attack.

"What the FRAK is going on?!" He shouted as he entered CIC.

"Cylons!" One of the operators shouted. "A whole shiton of them are all over us!"

Oh, that was just GREAT.

"Where's the Admiral?" Hoshi glanced to his left, where Helena Cain laid. "Helena!" He flipped her over, finding a three-inch bolt sticking out of her head at an angle that was generally…

No other way to say it: she was dead.

"Frak. Get the ship out of here!"

"We're trying but-" The DRADIS operator began to say, but something made him blink. "Wait… one of the Baseships just blew up!"

"One of ours?"

"No… Sir! New ships on DRADIS! Unknowns!"

* * *

Captain Drake - or rather _Rear Admiral_ Drake after Ron gave him a honorary rank in Starfleet - smirked as the _Saratoga_ claimed her first kill of the day. " _So_ nice to fight people who don't have shields… " he mused. "Issue the orders fleet-wide: shoot anything that isn't Colonial. And disable one of those ships if possible, I want Noble Team to secure one."

"Aye, sir." The frigate turned her nose to face one of the few Cylon ships to jump in, firing her MAC again, destroying the baseship.

Another baseship attempted to escape before it was rocked by an internal explosion. "Was that us?"

" _Providence_ beamed in a bomb, looks like it knocked out her power grid. She's going nowhere."

"Contact those ships: I want to make sure these ships are ready to move out. Knowing our luck, we'll be bringing them with us." He said.

"Channel Open, sir."

"This is Rear Admiral Drake of the UNSC _Saratoga_ to all Colonial Ships." He spoke, "If you want to survive, get your ships moving, and prepare to use your jump drives to reach the coordinates that are now being sent your way! Our fleet will cover you as you purge the CNP from your vessels! Move your asses!"

A number of smaller warships jumped in, but the Longswords and Sabers launched from their makeshift carriers, attacking the smaller Raiders, allowing the UNSC ships to fire and kill the Cylons without interference.

"Sir, one of the battlestars is backing out of her port: ID is _Pegasus_. She's powering weapons and targeting one of the baseships."

"What the fuck are they doing?"

"…trying to help?"

"…fuck it, they wanna stay and Fight, I'll take the help." Drake stated, "Coordinate with _Pegasus_ and target the Cylons! Exchange IFF tags so there aren't any friendly fire incidents!"

* * *

 _Pegasus_ fired her forward batteries, the 500cm shells slamming into a baseship's central axis, crippling the Cylon warship.

Once that was damaged, the FTLs were too dangerous to use: the distortions would tear the ship apart. Battlestars were more solidly built, but they were designed to take hits and deal MORE.

The two frigates and destroyer fired their MACs, destroying two more smaller Cylon warships before the damaged baseship fired missiles at its' allies, destroying one in a nuclear explosion.

Belzen chuckled. "Nice work."

" _Noble Actual to all ships: we have control of the baseship. Changing IFF codes to UNSC standard._ " The commander of _Pegasus_ wondered how the hell 'Noble' got on board in the first place and captured the baseship, but they had another ship in the fight.

The _Pegasus_ continued to unload its payload upon the Cylons, and the MAC Gun's of the UNSC ships tore through the Cylons like a hot knife through butter. And as the Cylons focused on them, the remaining Colonial vessels began to leave the shipyards, either joining the fight, or falling back towards the aforementioned coordinates.

There was only _one_ way this could get any more one-sided.

But the _Ra Cailum_ was at Caprica, saving the remnants of the Caprica Defense Fleet. But the UNSC were the equal of a _Galaxy_ -Class starship, at least with the upgrades Starfleet gave them, ie. _c_ fractional MAC guns, phaser banks, cannons, and photon torpedoes.

At that point, the Cylons fired as many nukes as they could at the surface while leaving space the fuck alone, jumping away while they still could.

* * *

"That was so one-sided, it wasn't fun at all."

"Really?"

"Even the Covenant had more firepower than these assholes did." Ron said. "Get the _Mercury_ on the horn. I want to have a talk."

"She's on."

" _This is_ Mercury _actual… I… must thank you for your assistance, Captain._ " The Admiral said, " _You saved a lot of lives today, but… just who_ are _you people? Are you… from the 13th?_ "

"Thirteenth what? We're from an alternate universe. If you're talking about Earth, yes, we're from there. Most of us are, anyways: a lot of my crew aren't human."

 _"…Ok, I'm just going to be thankful you saved our asses."_

"Question is, I saved your asses from whom? Are you at war with these people?" Last thing he wanted to do was get involved in a local conflict: the Prime Directive was rather clear on that.

" _They… they're called Cylons._ " Sasha informed, " _They're a race of Sentient machines that we created a long time ago… they rebelled, and we fought a war, but we ended it forty years ago… but now they're back._ "

"And we're involved. Goddamn it, command is going to kill me. Well, they can only punish me once. Get in contact with any surviving Colonial units: I am going to mop things up. Our sensors are picking up massive nuclear detonations on the planets beyond, so I hope you can evacuate them all."

" _We… do have a secret base full of ships we could use. If you can spare a few more engineering crews we can get them operational._ "

"I have nothing BUT engineering crews on this ship. Problem is, most of them are not human. Is that going to be a problem?"

" _Captain, your people just saved our asses._ " Sasha said, " _You could be a bunch of green little men and we'd still like you more than the Cylons._ "

"Well, one of my engineers is a green woman—"

"Wait, really?"

"No time for that. You got FTL ships and the coordinates for the base, and I have people bored out of their minds. I'll beam them over on your signal."

* * *

Sasha watched as showers of light placed hundreds of people, some looking human while more were…not so. The _Ra Cailum_ had a huge crew compliment, it seemed.

One of them, a human looking girl with dark purplish hair glanced around "Whoa… it kinda looks like the CIC of one of the ships Ron gave Gallia!" She muttered.

"Welcome aboard."

The girl jumped and saluted out of reflex to Admiral Sasha. "Petty Officer 2nd Class Isara Gunther, USS _Ra Cailum_ engineering crews, ma'am!"

"Relax. If anything, I should be thankful that your captain decided to help. And we've got a lot of work to do. Must be very skilled to be in the fleet at such a young age."

"Well, I signed up only a few days ago." She said, "I'm still getting a hang on how most of their technology works. But most of your tech actually looks like what I've dealt with when they came to our world, so I should be good."

"Our techies will help you and your boys out with what we've got." Sasha said. "Ask them if you have questions."

"Thanks. Commander Henderson was nice enough to give me basic engineering work before I move up to the bigger and more complicated technology."

One of her CIC operators ran up to the Admiral. "Priority message, ma'am. It's… from _Galactica_."

THAT was the brightest news she'd gotten all day. She took the paper out of his hands, reading it aloud. "To all Colonial units, am taking command of fleet; regroup at Ragnar Station for orders. Acknowledge, BSG-75 _Galactica_ Commander Adama, W." she crumpled the paper in her hands. "Contact the _Ra Cailum_. We need to head to Ragnar to contact Adama."

"Who's… Adama?" Isara asked.

"The most lethal son of a bitch the 12 colonies of Kobol have ever produced." Sasha stated, smirking.

* * *

An FTL drive worked by folding subspace, placing one ship a considerable distance away.

In the 'canon' timeline, that distance could be a few hundred meters to a few thousand meters to tens of lightyears.

And it also made for some amazing tactical work which were also amazing to watch, like dropping a battlestar into the atmosphere of a planet then jumping out just a few hundred meters from the surface.

And Ron liked it. So much so that the few remaining engineers on the _Ra Calium_ cleared out a cargo bay and built one based on the Cylon drive from the crippled baseship. The Raptors all jumped away, heading for a secret depot for Colonial warships that were 'decommissioned'.

The cackling Ron made scared everyone.

"I haven't had the chance to build something in ages! The entire fleet is gonna get refitted with these babies!"

Yeah, he was on an inventive streak. Which meant that some bad guys were gonna be in a _lot_ of pain in the near future.

But first, dealing with Adama. He was a First War vet, commander of the first battlestar built. The man was due to retire, but now he had no choice but to keep on fighting.

That was going to be difficult, as the two ships jumped close to Ragnar, entering the cloud before Ron sighted Galactica on screen. And he wasn't happy.

Most of the armor was gone, the starboard flight pod was enclosed and she was nowhere _near_ combat ready.

"As soon as we can, I shall bring down the might of the SCE on that ship. And she will be _glorious._ "

Takeshi, who had accompanied Ron with the _Firestorm,_ laughed. " _I don't think I've heard you admire a ship except your own_ that _much, Ron._ "

"It's almost perfect for warship design: it's heavily armed, supposed to be heavily armored, carries a number of fighter squadrons into battle and it looks highly maneuverable for its' size and mass. You or Riza could make that thing turn on a string of dimes."

" _But_?"

"But the ship doesn't have countermeasures for transporters or shields or any modern technologies that would make it better. That we can solve. Riza, put us alongside. And hail _Galactica_."

* * *

"Commander! We're being hailed!"

Commander William Adama blinked. "Set Condition two." He ordered, then he turned to Colonel Saul Tigh. "Who can see us in this soup?"

"Could be the Cylons."

"But they would shoot first and talk to us never, which could mean survivors." Adama nodded to Anastasia Dualla. "Put them on."

"Galactica, _this is Captain Ronald Pinkerton of the United Federation of Planets starship_ Ra Calium. _Please respond."_

"Not colonial."

"Put them through." Dualla patched in the clean signal, which was _too_ clean, to be perfectly honest. It meant either they had a wire connected to the hull, which they would have noticed, or they had more power being shot through their comms array. That wasn't comforting.

"This is _Galactica_ Actual."

" _Commander, it's a pleasure to hear from you. We brought_ Mercury _along, so you might have some things to talk about. Need a hand?_ "

* * *

 **?**

* * *

" _The Interloper is has survived."_

 _"That is not entirely unexpected."_

 _"We cannot predict his actions. They vary from outcome to outcome."_

 _"That has_ never _been comforting."_

 _"What do you want? Lies? He will never be predictable except in two ways: he will bring destruction to his enemies and cause nothing but pain to us."_

 _"That is the only outcome that is clear. The battle of Procyon V cannot be won unless he is removed from the picture."_

 _"THAT we agree upon."_

 _"Who shall we choose as proxy?"_

 _"The only one that can face him."_

 _"She will be easily manipulated."_

* * *

 **Redemption's Avenger: Oooo. Who's that? I'd give a little hint, but then Ron would end me. Besides, you could see the connections if you're a proper Star Trek fan.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Or read the original treatment. Everyone here knows who it is.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yep. Things are gonna get pretty nasty in a bit. Luckily everyone involved can deal with nasty.**

 **Ruby: Including us!**

 **117Jorn: well, here we are in Galactica… question now is, what will happen this time around?**

 **Ja Ne!**


	35. Chapter 35

**Battlestar Galactica**

* * *

Adama read the reports from the ships fleeing the Colonies.

All of them had been hit with nukes, billions were dead and the fleet had fallen apart. The _Ra_ _Cailum_ and her allies had saved most of the military and civilian ships, but it was a fraction of the 50 billion that lived on the Colonies.

Thankfully, Admiral Urei had sent her raptors with all of the _Ra_ _Cailum's_ engineers (thousands of them, from what he was told) to some secret base to pick up their mothballed ships.

But they kept the best on the _Ra_ _Cailum_ , including a girl he'd run into that wore similar glasses as he did.

They even swapped them after she asked: they had the same prescription. Mari was a nice girl, if… weird.

On another note though, Adama was _very_ happy that these people came with the mobile refit station _Reboot_. It was _exactly_ what _Galactica_ needed to get back to 100% and then some. Her starboard flight pod was being reactivated, hull plating replaced - and improved with that Tritanium plating the _Ra Cailum_ was made out of, and a piece of tech he was _very_ happy to have: shields, which meant that the ship could go faster.

From what he was told they were shields to another alien race called 'The Covenant', the engineers said they'd try and rig up a proper warp core so they could have something closer to the _Ra Cailum's_ specs when they got somewhere a bit safer.

There was a knock on the hatch leading to his quarters. "Come in." The deadbolt rotated before the hatch opened, allowing Sasha to enter the room. "Sir."

"Admiral, with all due respect, you outrank me. By all rights, I should be saluting you."

"Not anymore," Sasha smirked, tossing him something which he caught. He glanced at it… blinking as he noticed the Fleet Admiral pins. "Nagala's last standing order - Find Adama, and name you Fleet Admiral."

"Shit."

"I know, you gave up on it, but it's about time. All it took was the apocalypse to happen for it to happen."

Adama stood, removing Commander rank pins and putting on his new Fleet Admiral pins. "Well. Report."

"Most of our ships at Delta Canopis are en route to marshalling coordinates. The _Ra_ _Cailum's_ engineers worked miracles getting them operational in a matter of hours. We'll need to jump them into the cloud, but that might not be a problem: the _Ra_ _Cailum's_ computers are hyper-advanced. They make even ours from before the war look bad." Sasha shrugged. "We could probably upgrade the whole frakking fleet and the Cylon's could never make heads or tails on how to hack their shit… which brings up another subject involving _Galactica's_ future retrofit once things calm down."

"The _Ra Cailum_ sent an engineering crew to survey the hull. They weren't happy with the hull: they picked out problems with the construction."

"This ship survived decades of service."

"They're impressed with the design, not the materials. They're subpar: the metal is too thin."

And that made the design more impressive: it was made of shitty material and it was still going.

"How many ships?"

"Survivors? 60 military, 300 civilian. More military are on the way."

"It's the end of an era, Sasha."

"That it is." Sasha nodded, sighing. "It would've been a hell of a lot worse if those Starfleet guys hadn't shown up… but we have a chance now to survive at least… "

"I know. But we have to hit the Cylons hard, kick them out of Cyrannus before trying to rebuild."

"We can't rebuild, Bill."

"Then what do you suggest? We run?"

"All things considered… it's the best option we've got." Sasha informed, "The Colonies were nuked to hell, Bill… they'll be near-uninhabitable to humans soon with all that radiation. And we have a duty as the Colonial military to protect the _people_ of the 12 Colonies. For as long as the people survive… the ideals, the culture, philosophy… everything we know and love survives in some shape or form… I don't like it any more than you do, Adama… but we have no choice - and Starfleet won't help us reclaim our worlds with that Prime Directive of theirs - they're already going to get in a heap of trouble for giving us what they've already given us."

"I'm grateful for that. Admiral, make preparations to get the fleet out of here. I have to go talk to the new president."

"And who's that?"

"Laura Roslin."

Sasha laughed. The 43rd in line was in charge.

"We are so screwed."

* * *

"…I may have to have an affair…"

Sonja blinked. "Wait, what!?"

"I love _Morningstar_ … but goddamnit those Colonial Battlestars are _sexy as FUCK._ " Jaden gushed as he looked over the schematics of the four mainstay Colonial Battlestar classes: _Orion_ , _Valkyrie, Mercury,_ and _Galactica_ , practically drooling over them. "A perfect hybrid of a battleship and a carrier… ohohoho the ideas for a Starfleet version are just _flooding in_ …"

"The captain's working on modifications to the rest of the fleet back home. These FTL drives are going to change the face of Starfleet."

"I hope in a good way."

"You have no idea. It's even making the _Miranda_ -Class look better." And as the _Miranda_ was nothing more than an explosive target, _that_ was saying something.

Still, they had problems. That being that the _Reboot_ wasn't designed for the amount of work, or for servicing non-UNSC ships.

The modifications were barely able to handle some Starfleet ships, but they were barely rated for a _Defiant_ -sized ship.

An _Oddy_ or _Jupiter_ were out of the question.

"Well, I'm also interested in their fighters and Gunships," He continued, looking at the specs for the Colonial's mainstay Fighters: Viper Mk-II, III, and VII, as well as variants of the Raptor. "I'm a MS jockey, but there's an air of appeal to these things… much easier to build and maintain for sure… gonna see if I can make a Starfleet-grade Viper Mk-VIII and a Mark-III Raptor when I get the time… "

"With the amount of work we'll be doing? Most of my staff are on those old ships, getting them space worthy again. We're going to be busy just keeping the _Ra_ _Cailum_ from exploding."

"…I hate my life."

"We all hate our lives, sweety." Sonja pecked him on the cheek before walking off.

* * *

 **Cylon Basestar**

* * *

"I declare this ship under the banner of team RWBY!"

"Really, Ruby?"

The young leader giggled. "Sorry, had to do that."

Ron had the Hunters and Huntresses take an undamaged basestar, in order to have a good base to analyze Cylon tech. Yes, the UNSC had captured a basestar, but that one was damaged.

So, RWBY, JNPR, CVFY, and Mark had taken a cloak-equipped runabout and literally walked into a lone baseship. The Cylons hadn't even noticed they were there until most of their Heavy Raiders exploded. After that, it was a cakewalk, as evidenced by the many, many dismantled Centurions.

The Hunters had also managed to capture a few humans that put up resistance, but a few had, strangely, committed suicide without remorse, which had shaken the younger teams.

Further in the ship, Mark had found… the Hybrid. He hadn't even let Ruby in there.

After making sure the young Rose didn't get too curious, Mark was getting the baseship ready to move.

"So, the ship really doesn't have manual controls, except for this gel—" He waved at the hand tub. "To which the pilot relegates mental instructions to the Hybrid, which carries out those orders. Now, I'm faced with a dilemma."

"What?" Yang asked.

"Controlling a ship with your mind is a hard task. Now, the Hybrid might act as a buffer, but those people we found might not be entirely… human."

"You're afraid that your mind can't handle all that information." Blake inferred.

"Yeah…"

"I could do it."

"You don't have mods like Ron and you can't reprogram your nanoprobes without help." Mark groaned. "Well, here goes nothing."

And without a second thought, he plunged his hands into the datastream.

The man gasped as new information flooded his mind.

"Are you alright?" Ruby asked worriedly.

"Well, I'm not dying of a cerebral hemorrhage, so I think so. Alright, activating sublights… now."

The ship rumbled as it started moving. "Okay… still not dead… charging jump drive. The Hybrid is calculating the jump… Jump calculated. Hold on to your lunches: jumping!"

The world distorted, stretched, and shrank all at the same time for an agonizing second before they appeared outside of Ragnar.

Jaune immediately vomited.

The rest were a little more strong-willed, managing to hold it in, despite their _very_ green faces.

"Ohhh… I don't feel so good." Coco mumbled.

Mark pulled himself into more or less a standing position. "Broad-ugh… Broadcasting IFF codes to the fleet."

"Ok, you need to stop." Blake said, laying a hand on Mark's arm. "I can care over."

"Borg enhanced or not—"

"I can actually regenerate the damage on the spot and I have filters. You don't have anything to help."

"And you're still learning how to use that Borg shit."

"At least I can take it!"

Mark heaved a tired sigh and nodded. "Alright." He pulled his arms out of the gel and stepped back, making his way over to a bulkhead before sitting down.

"Here."

Mark took the drink and ration bar offered by Yang. "Thanks."

"Hey, my girl's right. She's got the enhanced everything. You got just your aura. She can take it." Indeed, Blake was suffering less than Mark, but bets were that Ron could hijack this baseship better than they.

"IFF codes are Starfleet standard. The _Ra Cailum_ is hailing us." Blake informed. "It's Commander Henderson."

" _Ah, good to see you guys are back. Bring her in to dock with_ Reboot, _I'll be over shortly._ "

"Copy that."

"Wait." Mark called out. "I just remembered. While I was charging the drive, I came across this piece of programming. It looked different, alien, compared to Cylon and Starfleet code. It almost looked like a Remote Access Tool to me."

"I see it." Blake said, cocking her head.

 _"I'll get the captain on it: he's better at cryptology then anyone."_

"Cheating bastard."

"It's an equal exchange. He'll never be whole again thanks to the Borg."

"I know, I know."

* * *

"Yes Sonja, what is it? I'm busy making things better."

"Sorry to interrupt your happy time, but the Hunters are back."

Ron raised an eyebrow. "So?"

"Mark found something in the systems that doesn't look Cylon, a RAT, according to him. He said it didn't belong."

Ron stopped what he was doing and frowned.

"Wonderful." He looked over the files for a moment, his Borg brain scanning the contents. "Fuck. Pinkerton to Corpsa: yellow alert."

" _Yellow? We're never on yellow: it's usually red or green._ "

"We have an Elachi presence in this universe. Yellow, _now_."

" _Captain, a large Cylon fleet just jumped in outside the cloud."_

"Fuck. We don't have time for these bastards, start jumping the fleet out. Sonja, is the station ready?"

The engineer smiled sadistically. "Oh yeah."

"Good." Ron stood up and strode onto the bridge, taking his place. "Report."

"23 Cylon baseships and a number of support vessels are outside of the cloud. Sensors can't give any details yet. The probe data is on a five second delay."

"Prepare to jump the anchorage out of the nebula."

Cassie nodded. "Jump coordinates set."

"Basestars are launching Raiders and firing nukes."

"Now, Cassie."

With a flash, Ragnar Anchorage jumped…

And reappeared in the middle of the Cylon fleet.

The station began to collapse under the stress of a jump that it was never designed to do, crumpling in on itself.

Until it exploded.

Tons of metal and fire radiated out from the center of the explosion, crashing headlong into the basestars, subliming their hulls, breaking them apart, or turning them into even more debris.

This was the signal for the fleet to move out and jump, with _Pegasus_ and _Mercury_ jumping first to secure the next jump site. The civilians followed suit, _Galactica_ escorting them before the rest of the military units jumped. The _Ra Cailum_ flew out of the nebula, buzzing the only intact baseship before Ron bent over and sent over a picture of his naked ass.

Annette and Cassie _weren't_ happy about that.

* * *

"I know you two aren't happy about that—"

"The only ones who get to see more than the skin you usually show with your uniform are us. Mooning them wasn't a good idea."

"But it was fucking _hilarious,_ " Jaden laughed out. "Of all the things, they never could've seen that coming!"

"Well, I am a troll, or so people say." Ron said. "Riza, jump us the fuck out of here. Regroup with the rest of the fleet. I want to get the hell out of here."

"Aye Nii-sama… " Riza said, as the Jump drive was spooled up. And a few moments later, the _Ra Cailum_ vanished, before reappearing right on top of their fleet and the Colonials.

"Alright, we got a LOT of work to do before we leave. Let's get to it."

* * *

"This is NOT funny!" The female Cylons kept laughing at Cavil's reaction to the moon on the screen behind him.

ALL of the screens were displaying the man's ass. The ladies were amused.

Cavil was pissed.

"STOP SHOWING IT GODDAMNIT!" Cavil shouted, tossing the closest object at the nearest screen, shattering it. "WHAT THE FRAK IS HAPPENING HERE?! WHAT THE FRAK IS THAT DAMN SHIP?!"

Overpowered and too fast to catch, all they caught was the name of the ship: Ra Cailum.

They had somehow captured three of their baseships, saved most of the surviving humans and their military, and now they were gone!

They couldn't fight that thing. It took nukes like candy and it destroyed all of their ships when it decided to fight back.

"It fights as if it possessed the wrath of god in all his fury," The Two mused, looking at the recordings of the Starship as it literally rammed into a Baseship, cutting it in half with its own hull without taking a scratch.

"Oh, don't start with that shit."

"What do you want me to say? It's the truth."

"We need a counter to that thing. Can we predict its' flight path?"

"The hybrids tried that: we can't."

"GAH! What will it take to kill the humans once and for all?!"

"I believe I can assist you in this endeavor," a female voice spoke as if from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, before a blue swirling portal opened right in the middle of the command center, and a being emerged from it.

The being was red and black, having multiple eyes and a single arm. "What… are you?"

"One who has issue with the Other. I am a warrior. I am of the Whole. You may call me T'ket." Her eyes then flared to life. "And the enemy of my enemy… is my _friend_ …"

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: And the bitch is back. Told you if you read the original STO, you'd know.**

 **117Jorn: You know what that means… R.A.P.E!**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yep. Carnage time! :D**

 **Ruby: Bitch! You took away our homeworld in the original!**

 **Weiss: Should we stop her—**

 **Blake/Yang: YES!**

 **Ja Ne!**

 **P.S: HAPPY NEW YEARS :D**


	36. Chapter 36

**Battlestar _Galactica_**

* * *

They had to mine.

Most of the fleet needed repairs and some damage control, so they had to stop near an asteroid belt, where the mining ships, assisted by the _Ra Cailum_ and her fleet, were stripping the asteroids down to nothing. Anything that could be of use was mined to rebuild and repair what they needed for what they knew would be a _long_ journey.

 _Reboot_ was working overtime, repairing and upgrading damaged battlestars and the First Cylon War ships recovered from Delta Caponis. They had been forced to convert several military ships into civilian transports, just to reduce the overcrowding problem on the _St. Elizabeth_ and the other civilian ships.

 _Galactica_ herself was no exception to the repair work: the ship was slowly stripped of her armor and put in an atmospheric environment contained in a forcefield, that way she wouldn't slam shut like a book. Sonja and Jaden were busy replacing the sections that needed to be brought up to spec, using Starfleet technology to do the job.

Within days, the ship was being rearmored, all of her internals finally at blueprint standard. Both flight pods were functioning at 100% capacity, its armaments upgraded with 600cm cannons which could switch between projectiles and phase cannons, plus a new Phaser array which gave it even _more_ firepower. Photon Torpedo tubes, enhanced computer systems that Cylons could never _hope_ to hack, and given all the nifty replicator tech and updated transporter beams.

It was as if _Galactica_ had been reborn from the brink of death. Just days ago she was the oldest ship, on the verge of becoming a museum… now she stood as the single, most advanced warship in Colonial hands.

If, or rather _when_ the Cylons attacked again, they were in for one hell of a surprise.

"Remind me to thank those two." Adama muttered.

"Thanks aren't needed for Starfleet. They just don't care as long as they're actually helping, it seems to me, Bill."

Adama had to agree.

* * *

"The station's having a hard time keeping up with the demand."

"I noticed. It's a great idea, but… Not Starfleet standard."

The _Reboot_ was being overwhelmed with repair demands. The rest of the fleet, it could handle to a point, but the _Ra Cailum_ was the only ship it couldn't really service properly.

Great idea, just not good _enough_.

"In my opinion, our best bet would be to build another refit station like the _Reboot_ , only designed more for ships like the _Oddy,_ " Jaden said, "If nothing else, it will help us ensure _Reboot_ doesn't get overwhelmed with repair duties."

"It'll take a while to design, let alone build. Months, if not years."

"I'll have to talk to Ron about it. Not that that's gonna be a problem: anything to keep his ship up and running."

"Well, I have a name for it." Sonja grinned, giddy.

"What?"

" _Hand of Scotty._ "

Jaden burst out laughing. "You've sealed the deal! Ron _has_ to build it now."

* * *

"The name, I can do without. We're not the UNSC: they specialize in overly long names. But the concept is good. When we get back home, I'll send the blueprints back home. But it's going to take an ETERNITY to build and we are lacking in raw materials like tritanium."

"Well, might as well get started."

"Don't get too engrossed." Ron warned. "The Elachi are out there, and where a Servitor is, the Iconians aren't too far behind."

"Think it's T'ket?"

"Who else? L'Miren fears me and the rest won't do anything. T'ket's the only one that's holding a grudge and would be stupid enough to follow me across universes."

"Point taken. She's also fucking insane. Almost as crazy as you."

"The difference is I save my insanity for the best moments. She is crazy _all_ the time."

* * *

 **Joint Combat Airspace Patrol**

* * *

Leading one of several joint CAPs, was a pair of Peregrines off _Morningstar_. They were leading a squadron of Vipers and a half-squadron of modified Sabres.

"Nothing as usual. Anything on your end, Mobius?"

" _Nothing. Keep your eyes open: the Cylons are still out there._ "

Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace paralleled the much larger fighter. "So, what's got you guys so scared?

" _The Iconians are the worst force that ever existed. They're hyper-advanced: more-so then we are. We only won through luck and the captain having balls made of neutronium. He managed to make them back off, but T'ket never listened to the treaty. She wants us dead._ "

Whistles and shudders came over the comm. Most of the pilots had seen how much ass Starfleet had kicked back in the Colonies, so to learn that someone could face them one-on-one, was a bit frightening.

" _Hold it, picking up a contact. Five Cylon Raiders, bearing 143 mark 003. Shoot them down before they can bring the baseships down on us!_ "

Starbuck grinned. "I'm on it!" Her Mk II kicked on the 'burners, accelerating toward the Raiders, guided in by the heavy fighters.

Tracers erupted from her guns, streaking across space to ruthlessly gut the Raiders…

A brilliant blue portal erupted in front of the Cylons, and out emerged a Iconian Raider, which effortlessly took the bullets on its shields.

" _SHIT! Vipers, fall back! Ironclad Squadron, time to use those new missiles you've been wanting to try!"_

Starbuck pulled back on the stick and turned around in less than a second, giving her a excellent view of the Peregrines and Sabres unleashing a barrage of green and silver missiles.

The plasma missiles struck first, sending green fire rippling across the raider's shields, straining them. Phaser cannon fire followed next, tearing holes in the shields and causing hull plates to vaporise and burn.

The quantum torpedoes followed right down the path, slamming directly into the Raider's spine, and this time, brilliant fireballs erupted forth, sending the crippled ship into a uncontrolled tumble.

The two Peregrines swooped in and tore it apart with a barrage of cannon fire while the Sabres descended on the Cylon fighters.

" _Ra Cailum_ , this is Mobius 2-5: we got an Iconian _Baltim_ -Class raider!"

 _"Confirmed, 2-5. All ships are now at red alert. FTL drives are spooling: get your asses back here."_

"Copy that. You heard the man! Move your asses!"

* * *

"Status on the fleet?"

"Civilian ships are charging their drives, the first will be away in thirty seconds." Corpsa reported.

"Ron, Adama's hailing." Cassie called out.

"Put him on."

 _"Captain, would you mind explaining what the hell is going on?"_

"There's an Iconian fleet en route. The fleet needs to jump and get the fuck out of here, unless you want to have millions of corpses on your conscious."

 _"I thought you were insane."_

"My insanity is tempered by my training and experience." Ron retorted. "I'm sane enough to run when a powerful enemy is nearby and civilians are at risk."

"Subspace event!" Corpsa called out. "Elachi fleet just exited a gateway and Cylons are jumping in!"

Ron snarled. "Adama, get moving. The _Ra Calium_ and _Firestorm_ will hold them off, and _Morningstar_ will jump with you to secure the rendezvous." He closed the channel. "Riza, come about. Corpie, load quantum torpedoes and divert auxiliary power to shields."

As the _Ra Cailum's_ load of quantum torpedoes was only half that of the photons, he spoke volumes of how little he wanted to be near them.

"Riza, take an evasive pattern, confuse them. Keep a subspace jamming field up at all times: they can't use their gateways without subspace. Corpsa, torpedoes, lead frigate. Cripple his engines and send him spinning."

The _Ra Calium_ spun down the enemy formation, sending two torpedoes into the leading frigate's engines, sending it crashing into another, destroying both.

All of the dreadnought's phaser banks opened up, striking or killing a ship and targeting another. Return fire was brutal, but Riza's excellent piloting skills took them through the worst of it.

Six frigates and a escort dropped on the cruisers' rear, trying to land a hit, but crippling fire from the _Firestorm_ broke their formation, and the tiny little ship darted through to alpha strike a battleship.

"Come to port, 274 mark 0! Photon torpedoes, aft tubes! Phasers, fire on the torps as soon as they're within range!"

Two Iconian warships were on the _Ra Cailum's_ tail, but they were about to be sent flying as a pair of torpedoes were forcibly detonated, sending them flying into larger, heavier-hitting vessels with the shockwaves caused by the phasers detonating them.

"Civilian ships have jumped out, military vessels are beginning their jumps as well!" A ensign at sensors reported.

"Good. Keep dealing the pain Corpie!"

Riza gunned for a Elachi _Ornash_ heavy escort. "Hey, Cassie." She called out.

"Yeah?"

"You know that maneuver I was talking to you about?"

"…yeah?"

"Get a tractor beam ready."

Passing the escort, Cassie grabbed the vessel, and it was pulled along by the much bigger mass of the _Odyssey_. Making for the Iconian _Vomph_ that was seemingly leading the fleet, Riza set for a collision course.

"Riza." Ron started.

"Don't worry brother. Corpsa, load the rear tubes, full spread."

Corpsa lanced the battleship's shields with the forward phasers, while simultaneously disabling their 'captured' _Ornash_.

"Wait for it… wait for it… now!"

Riza pulled a tight Immelman, and right at the apex of the turn, Cassie let go of the _Ornash_ , flinging it at the _Vomph_ much like a starship-sized slingshot.

The Elachi battlecruiser slammed into the Iconian ship's shields, overloading them with the sheer concussive force of a several million ton ship going close to the speed of light. The rest of the _Ornash,_ which was now a group of former hull plates and superstructure flying in formation, slammed into the _Vomph_ 's port-side spar, ripping massive holes into it, and the forcible decompression of several decks sent it into an uncontrolled turn.

Until Corpsa's quantum torpedoes tore it up even more, breaking two spars off entirely. The ship's core failed shortly after that, resulting in a large explosion that took out two dozen ships.

"How's the humiliation feel, T'ket?!" An antiproton beam impacted the shields, making the _Ra Cailum_ rock. "I take that we've pissed her off. Aft tubes, phased plasma torpedoes!"

"Loading!" The superdreadnought banked, the rear tubes targeting the biggest ship in the enemy fleet, an Elachi _Sheshar_. "Fire!"

Red-green projectiles flew out of the rear tubes, phasing through the shields like a chroniton torpedo before going _into_ the ship and detonating, causing massive internal damage as they phased back into normal space.

"Get us back to the fleet! Jump!"

"Jumping!" A moment passed, before the _Ra Cailum_ winked out of existence - reappearing alongside the rest of the combined fleet. "Jump completed… no signs of the Iconians."

"Good. Repair any damage we received, then prepare for another combat jump."

"We're going back?"

"We can't jump timelines without crippling T'ket's fleet. All we did was delay her. We need to do more damage to the point where she has nothing to effectively engage us with. Open a channel to _Galactica_."

" _Captain, who are those people, and why are they out to kill you?"_

"The bitch's name is T'ket. She's an Iconian who I kinda fucked over a year ago." Had it been a year since that final battle? "The rest of her kind fear me and respect that I'm a dangerous bastard, but T'ket is unstable at best. Insane at worst. She wants me dead."

" _She's a crazy bitch that we'll have to deal with eventually._ " Jaden stated, joining the conversation over on the _Morningstar_. " _I'd rather not have her hounding us across the multiverse._ "

" _We need the_ Ra Cailum _to jump the fleet out of here. Your… warp drive is the only thing that can do it._ "

"I know that, but we're also the most powerful ship in the fleet—"

The tactical console then began going off. "Captain, I'm picking up a fleet of ships on sensors."

"Fuck me. All hands, stand to—"

"Wait… they're Tholian?"

"…Tholian? What the hell are they doing here?"

"Ron, they're requesting permission to send an envoy over."

Ron nodded. "Permission granted. Let's see what they want and how the _hell_ they're here."

* * *

Jaden watched as a massive Tholian fleet entered formation with their own, a _Tarantula_ -Class dreadnought dwarfing the _Ra Cailum_ in terms of sheer bulk. But compared to the _Ra Cailum_ , it was inflexible: it could only be used as a command ship or carrier, being too slow to bring her main weapons arrays on an enemy target.

"So… these guys from your side of the multiverse?" Jaden asked Sonja. "Ships are… weird-looking…"

"The Tholians have a unique spin on ship design. The _Tarantula_ is a dreadnought-class starship, big and powerful, more so than even the _Ra Cailum_."

"But…?"

"She's three times the size. Too bulky; you can't bring your main weapons on the target against anything but a Borg cube, which are even bigger. It's how the Iconians kicked their asses. The _Ra Cailum_ had to save them on five different occasions during the war due to their tactical inflexibility."

"Any idea why they're here?" Jordan asked. "Let alone _how_?"

"We're going to find out." She said. "All senior officers will be attending a briefing in a few minutes on the _Ra Cailum_ : we're senior officers, so we better get going."

"Being with you guys _never_ gets boring," Jaden chuckled as he and Sonja turned to head for the ready room.

The two walked to the transporter pad installed on the ship, beaming to the _Ra Cailum_ , walking to the deck one conference room. Waiting were the _Ra Cailum's_ senior staff and the other high ranking personnel in the fleet, from the UNSC, Celestial Being, the Colonies with one major exception: a group of spider-like beings in EVA suits.

"Everyone, I'd like to introduce Commander Loskene of the Tholian Assembly."

"Pleasure to meet you." Jaden nodded. "So… hate to sound like I want to cut to the chase, but… why and how are you here? Aren't you from the Captain's universe?"

A heavily synthesized voice emerged from the suit. _"We are. We have mastered the art of universal travel: our Assembly reaches into many universes, but we maintain the core in our universe._ "

"Nice one, Jaden."

Jaden looked at Ron. "The Tholians like it when you're honest. It pisses them off when you lie or stall. An incident in the 23rd Century proved that."

 _"We apologized for that incident 123 years ago when all of the facts were acquired. We do not like making mistakes."_

"Uh… what incident?"

"In 2268, a Federation starship, the _Constitution_ -Class USS _Defiant_ NCC-1764, was trapped in an interspatial rift created by the Tholians in the 22nd Century in the Mirror Universe. We only learned about it when Captain Benjamin Sisko brought intel back from the Mirror Universe. In short, the _Defiant_ phased into that universe and the Tholians thought Spock, one of our greatest people, was lying. We REALLY fucked the Tholians on the diplomatic front for THAT screw up. The _Defiant_ went missing and we nearly lost one of our best people in the salvage attempt."

"…let me guess, the one and only?" Jaden asked.

" _The Federation space vessel_ Enterprise _. Registry Nova Charlie Charlie One Seven Zero One. Commanding officer at the time was—_ "

"James Tiberius Kirk. We all know the bastard. Point is, WHY is the Assembly helping us? You fight us at every turn: the Nukara system, the incident with that Crystalline Entity, you've even attacked a Romulan Republic installation and you've had troops on New Romulus for months. Why the sudden change of heart?"

" _Because you have done what few other races have done,_ " the Tholian informed. " _You have made it to other universes._ "

"Wait, what?" Takeshi asked.

" _We… we operate on a similar principle to your Prime Directive. Only it's a bit… more extreme. We initially evolved in a realm… between universes, and only through great trial did we pierce the dimensional barriers to travel between universes. We do not normally interact with others, but… if we see potential for another race to do the same, we begin indirectly attempting to guide them along the same path—but because we were only able to do it with great adversity, the only way we can see to provide indirect guidance is to provide the same level of adversity._ "

"We weren't even trying. That was a warp drive improvement test."

" _That means little. You have done much to save the Assembly: your actions saved our people on many occasions. You saved Tholia. You saved the timeline. It should have come as no surprise that the_ Ra Cailum _and her crew would be the first to control the power to jump from one universe to another_."

"Ok, back to the point, what are we going to do now? Are you here to send us back home?"

" _No. It is not our way. You do not assist civilizations in technological development. Nor do we with multiversal technology. We are here to attempt to repay a debt we can never repay: to keep T'ket occupied_."

"We still need to cause some damage before we go. Otherwise, your actions will result only in more Tholian deaths. And I am not a fan of my allies getting killed needlessly."

"OK, so we have backup, and we have a goal," Takeshi informed. "Let's go in there and bust some heads!"

"We need a plan of attack first."

"I have a plan: attack," Takeshi said with a grin.

One of the XCOM people chuckled quietly and muttered, "Easy, Iron Man," under his breath.

"If we did it YOUR way, everyone on this ship would be dead thousands of times over, Take. We need to be smart about this, not rush in like an idiot swordsman facing a machine gun nest. Like you would."

"…That only happened once and it was on the holodeck."

"No excuse. We're going to use our brains on this one. Either we fight smart or we don't fight at all."

* * *

 **Takeshi Yamato: I first heard the "I have a plan: Attack" line in the Avengers movie… well, actually, I first heard it in DEATH BATTLE, in the Tony Stark/Iron Man vs Lex Luthor match, and then later heard it in the Avengers, but Tony said it both times, and honestly, it always fits my strategy in video games so bloody well.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Explains why you explode so often on Star Trek Online. You rush in blindly instead of coming up with an actual plan of attack.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: They've had this argument too many times to count…**

 **Weiss: I am sorry to say this, but I agree with the asshole. He acts like Yang.**

 **Yang: Hey!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Rushing in, not thinking of a way out, just attacking… sounds alike to me.**

 **117Jorn: Meh, Rushing in is overrated… why else do you think I always aim for my precious, precious CARRIERS! * _Jupiter_ -class carrier flies overhead***

 **Ron the True Fan: We'll avoid the ship talk for now: the readers don't want to hear it.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	37. Chapter 37

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

The _Ra Cailum_ was the most powerful starship in the fleet, not counting the Tholians.

But power did not mean weapons alone. It meant agility, speed and staying power. The _Ra Cailum_ was the best ship in all of those areas.

As such, she was gonna be one of the first ships into the fray, followed by _Firestorm, Khepri,_ and _Morningstar_. The UNSC ships would target Cylon ships and shieldless vessels. The Tholians would help take the pressure off Starfleet.

"The _Ra Cailum_ and _Firestorm_ will engage the Iconian flagship. With the flag engaged, the other ships will be forced to engage us, allowing the Tholians to engage them, their distraction will likely lead to fewer allied casualties. _Galactica_ and the _Saratoga_ will engage the Cylons with all volunteer military ships. The goal of this mission is not outright destruction: we have to cripple as many ships as we can to the point where T'ket will either give up the chase or at the very least be delayed for a long time."

"Weapons authorization?" Corpsa asked.

"Everything that isn't banned by law. That means phased plasma torpedoes, nukes, everything that causes destruction. Jaden, that includes Anubis Division."

"Oh, fuck yes."

"Remember, I expect limited damage from all hands. Do NOT get yourselves killed. The paperwork's a bitch."

They all had a laugh, but Ron was serious.

The less paperwork he had to do, the better.

* * *

"You think that's a dig on how we're always dumping the paperwork on him?"

"Probably. He's never been happy about us dumping it on him. I mean, it IS ours. And we keep shoving it on him because we don't like it." Takeshi looked at his wife pointedly. "What? He's been lenient with us on the whole thing. Any other captain would've busted our asses."

Takeshi sighed. She did have a point. "Anyway, time for us to bust some Iconian heads."

"This is Commodore Pinkerton to the fleet: standby for jump."

Takeshi sighed as he and Luna beamed to the _Firestorm_ , taking their posts. "Here we go."

* * *

Another _Vonph,_ this one slightly more ornate than others, made ready to attack, until a pair of phased plasma torpedoes slammed into its engines.

( **BGM: Star Trek Enterprise - Counterattack** )

The _Ra Cailum_ flew past, her form mocking T'ket as she roared in rage. " _You will DIE, Other_!"

"Then come and fucking get me, you one-armed smug bitch! I kicked your ass once; want a rematch?!"

The _Firestorm_ was next, as the ship fired its pulse cannons at the same spot. "You haven't forgotten about me, have you?" Takeshi mocked. "I could fly rings around you in that _Aquarius_ I used to fly - just imagine what I can do _now_!"

 _"You will both die!"_

The ship turned sluggishly, having her engines crippled by their first strikes. But they weren't done as a wave of torpedoes slammed into the ship, fired by Mobius Squadron's Peregrines.

* * *

On their baseship, RWBY jumped in behind the enemy fleet, launching wave after wave of nuclear burst missiles.

Sudden flashes appeared in the middle of the Cylon/Elachi formation, and shortly there after, massive nuclear and antimatter explosions erupted amongst them as the FTLed torpedoes and nukes detonated. RWBY's nukes landed shortly thereafter, targeting unscathed or damaged vessels.

Then the NOVA bomb went off.

It was utter carnage, with the planet-cracking UNSC bomb vaporizing even an Elachi dreadnought in it's fiery embrace. Radiation burned away escorts, debris collided with cruisers, and power cores failed.

The decimated fleet, now numbering a hundred and fifty ships out of what was once a mighty armada a thousand strong, made of what few ships managed to avoid the blasts, and even then, they didn't come out unscathed.

The UNSC, Colonials and Tholians arrived then, joining RWBY's modified basestar in pounding the enemy fleet. The Tholians went in first, tearing down what ships still had shields.

"Nice!" Yang cheered.

"Not as powerful as a tricobalt warhead, but it'll do." Blake commented, but she allowed herself a small smile. "Baseship 1 to _Ra Cailum_."

" _You need a better name for that ship._ "

"Funny. We're spinning up the FTL drive: preparing for another jump."

" _You're a glass cannon: don't risk our new ship. Jump to coordinates 45.7 by 48 by 23, arm all remaining nuclear missiles. I want you to blind their sensors with dirt._ "

As in dirty nukes. The radiation would fuck with their sensors in ways that wouldn't be normally considered fair, but Ron used the nuclear tactic against the Klingons, Romulans and Vaadwaur. It worked.

The newly named Anubis Mobile Suit Division tore through dozens of Cylons raiders and Elachi assault shuttles, keeping them off the fleet and just generally culling their numbers.

" _Wooohooo!"_ Jaden shouted. " _It's like shooting turkeys, except the turkeys shoot back!"_

"Focus on the job, Commander. Standby."

" _Spoilsport_."

The baseship jumped, reappearing several hundred kilometers above the enemy fleet before firing off a barrage of nukes. Two of them exploded early, blinding the sensors of the closest enemy ships, but the rest made it through, detonating close to the enemy formations. "They're blind; all units, jump in and attack! Repeat, jump and attack!"

" _No mercy! Nena? HIT IT!"_ Jaden shouted.

" _Hitting it!_ "

 **(BGM: "Sky Titans" by Two Steps from Hell)**

The 0 Gundam Mk-2 and Drei Turbulenz roared forward as the machines almost literally _danced_ around the Cylon-Elachi-Iconian forces, firing beam guns and swinging their beam sabers at anything stupid enough to get close - becoming a whirlwind of destruction as they cut a hole in their lines.

" _Don't be flashy about it._ " Ron admonished. " _All ships, prepare to regroup. We've caused enough damage: she's not going anywhere. All ships, jump back to the fleet!_ "

" _We will hold the Iconian until you are clear._ " The tholians informed. " _Good luck with your journey, Captain._ "

"I thought Tholians didn't believe in luck."

" _It is a customary human expression. We will also inform your Starfleet Command that you have survived._ "

The MS teams were recovered before the rest of the fleet jumped away, the _Ra Cailum_ firing one last shot before disappearing in a flash.

* * *

 **Earth, Starfleet Headquarters - Stardate 88677.2/September 5th, 2411**

* * *

Three women marched down the halls of Starfleet Command, heading to the office of one Admiral in particular. An Admiral who they had a bone to pick with.

Trailing them was the most dangerous _woman_ in the Federation Starfleet: Ayame Virgilia Wilhelmina Pinkerton. The black-haired woman was pissed off at information they just got from the Tholian ambassador.

"I know Jellico hates them, but the fact that he just automatically declared them dead just galls the mind, especially after what we just learned!" A brunette woman in the attire of a Federation Councilwoman said. This was Ryoko Hibiki, member of the Council, and also Takeshi's older sister, though she kept that connection mostly quiet to rise on her own merits.

"Voyager was declared KIA less than a year after they were sent into the Delta Quadrant. Shows how much faith we have in our people."

The aide sitting at his desk looked up at the trio. "Captain Pinkerton. How can I—" Ayame kicked him in the face, picked him up, and shoved him into the doors, breaking them.

"Subtle."

"Too pissed to care."

The last woman let out a brief giggle. She, too, was a brunette, but a slightly different color, and she was in an Admiral's uniform of her own. This was Hayate Yagami, head of Special Operations Section 6. "Subtlety has its place, Ryoko-chan, but this isn't it," she said.

Ryoko nodded. "True," she said. "Anyway, let's do this."

The three went through the broken doors, entering the office of Admiral Jellico.

"What the hell are you people doing?!" Jellico showed, rising from his seat. "Get out of my office!"

"You had all information on the _Ra Cailum_ rerouted to your office without informing anyone else." Ayame declared, putting her finger in Jellico's face. "You wanted to hide the fact that my son is still alive! Give me a fucking reason not to kill you!"

Jellico sat back in his chair. "Beyond the fact that you can't touch me?"

Ayame grinned predatorily and turned to Ryoko. "Councilwoman, you have a knowledge of the law. Please tell me what all of this translates to."

"With all of his activities?" The council member made an act of thinking about it. "I believe he would be charged with corruption and removed from his post, stripped of his rank and commision."

"That's exactly what the regulations demand."

"Of course," Hayate remarked helpfully, "This means that whatever protection you thought you had is now gone."

Jellico was redfaced. "You-you still can't do anything to me!"

"We'll deal with Admiral Quinn. We'll organize a rescue and support mission with him." Ryoko turned away, waving at Hayate. "Deal with him, ma'am."

"Thank you very much, Captain," Hayate replied. She watched as Ryoko and Ayame left. "You're right," she said. "As a Starfleet Officer, I probably couldn't do anything to you. I'd just have to take you in to stand trial, but you might get off on a technicality or buy your way out of it or something." Jellico's smug grin that was beginning to form immediately faded as she drew a knife. "However… Section 31 doesn't have those restrictions."

"Section—what do they have to do with this?!"

"Because we've been looking at you for a VERY long time. Your continued harassment of the _Ra Cailum's_ crew in spite of their records, your seeming loathing of the captain… Admiral Edward Jellico, you have been sentenced."

She advanced on Jellico, brandishing her knife. "You are not going to interfere with any operations ever again." When she reached him, she struck.

* * *

"Starfleet will not be mourning that fucking bastard. Everyone in the Delta Quadrant is pissed off that no one's bothering to look for my son, the Klingons want to go kill something, the Romulans owe him, and Starfleet itself owes him."

"Agreed, I know I won't," Ryoko replied. "Still wish we hadn't had to go this far, but the idiot forced our hand. Anyway, we have other things to deal with. Such as actually organizing the search."

"The _Damascus_ will be joining it."

"That went without saying. We'll have to talk with Admiral Quinn, see who would be willing to join the search. Do we know what happened, how they disappeared?"

Ayame handed her a PADD and read from her own. "The _Ra Cailum_ had a new experimental dilithium crystal chamber installed by an… Ensign Mari Illustrious Makinami?" The captain frowned. "Sonja won't let anyone install anything in her engine room without her approval."

"Unless Quinn ordered it."

"So, simple: we replicate the chamber."

"Works well enough," Ryoko said. "So, we replicate what they were doing, we follow their path, we find them, and we support them, and work on getting them home."

"Might not be that easy." The other woman commented, reading the dreadnought's 'course.' "You've clearly not been reading reports from the _Ra Cailum_. When he wants to get somewhere, he moves _fast_. He rushed ahead of the pack at Vaadwaur Prime, crippling half the fleet in a matter of minutes before the rest moved in. And unlike your brother, he actually thinks about five steps ahead and adjusts accordingly."

Ryoko nodded. "True," she said. "And I will admit that I don't read the reports in-depth, though I do skim them sometimes. Remember, the Pinkerton approach to paperwork is not what normal people think of the topic."

"So? We hate it, too: we just figure that to get it out of the way, you do it quickly. Not our fault speed-reading is a family trait."

"…How many words can you read in a minute?"

"I think the correct question is how many _pages_ can we read in a minute. And the answer is eight. Mostly."

"Mostly?"

"Depends on the size of the PADD."

Ryoko sighed. "Well, regardless, the sooner we talk to Quinn, the sooner we can set out on their trail."

"We'll be beaming over to ESD in five minutes. Try not to lose your clothing in the meantime."

"W-What?!"

"You and your brother share a single trait: you prefer sex to anything else."

The captain left the room.

"…not entirely true."

Still, if there was anything the two shared, it was being a right asshole about their words.

And being as blunt as a sledgehammer about it.

* * *

 **Takeshi Yamato: And so we end the Galactica arc, and Starfleet is gearing up to go help the Ra Cailum.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Well, at least we know where he got his disposition from. He just takes it to a greater extreme. And adds trollism to it.**

 **117Jorn: The question now is… where do they go next? *furry creature is spotted in background* … Oh… _YOU! *_ pulls out SPARTAN Laser _*_**

 **Ruby: What's that?**

 **Redemption's Avenger: I think I know, but I'm not sure. If it is what I think it is, grab flamethrowers.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Something that needs to suffer. I'll be back. (Loads Striker)**

 **Ja Ne!**


	38. Chapter 38

**Earth Spacedock**

* * *

"You don't look surprised, Admiral."

"Why should I?"

"Point taken."

Jorel Quinn let out a breath. The two women standing in front of his desk were the most dangerous people in the Federation.

One was the mother of the _Ra Cailum's_ commanding officer, who had been in command of the _Galaxy_ -Class USS _Damascus_ for over 45 years and seemingly hadn't aged a day since she left the Academy and had two children. Ayame Pinkerton nee Orson was a dangerous woman to fuck with, having bought death to the Dominion during the Second Battle of Chin'toka by crippling and destroying more ships than any allied ship combined.

The other was an old friend of hers: Takeshi Yamato's sister, Ryoko Yamato, a highly influential Federation councillor whose influence had only grown with the growing reputation of the Starship _Ra Cailum_ , which, in less than 4 years, had earned as high a reputation as the _Enterprise_ , _Voyager_ , the _Defiant_ and the other legendary starships of the United Federation of Planets Starfleet.

"Well… thanks to the Tholians, we know he _is_ alive, thankfully." Quinn stated, looking at the report. "Hopping from universe to universe… seems to have assembled some sort of fleet of followers too."

"And advanced technology," Ayame said. "Some of the reports make the SCE want their flagship back. The _Damascus_ will be going to get the _Ra Cailum_ back as soon as the new warp chamber is installed. If we can use their course as a plotting system, we can get them home much faster. I don't want a repeat of the debacle with _Voyager_."

"Agreed," Quinn nodded. "But you won't be going alone - we have no idea what to expect out there afterall. I'll scrape up some volunteers from the fleet and find anyone willing to head out with you."

"The _Damascus_ can handle it. Besides, who the hell is going to be willing to follow us to bring back who is probably the second-most hated man in Starfleet?"

* * *

Ryoko drolled out a single sentence. "Apparently, a lot of people."

"What are you talking-" Ayame said, before she looked out the window… and spotted the entire _Armada_ of starships.

Seven _Jupiter_ -class Supercarriers, an _Excelsior_ -class Medium Cruiser, four _Sao Paulo_ -class Tactical Escorts, four _Saber_ -class Escorts, a _Devron_ -class Dreadnought, an _Ambassador_ -class Medium Cruiser, a _Nebula_ -class Medium Cruiser, an _Intrepid_ -class Medium Cruiser, eight _Miranda_ -class Frigates, eight _ShiKahr_ -class Frigates, eight _Centaur_ -class Frigates, and also a _Chronos_ -class Dreadnought, a _Yorktown_ -class, and even the pride of Starfleet herself: the NCC-1701-F USS _Enterprise_.

And that was just the _Starfleet_. Somehow the news of Ron's survival spread and… well…

The Klingons sent one _Ty'Gokor_ -class heavy command battlecruiser, one _Vo'Quv_ -class dreadnought carrier, one _Bortasqu_ '-class dreadnought, one _Guramba_ -class Destroyer, one _Mogh_ -class Battlecruiser, one _Qa'Tel_ -class Flight Deck Raptor, four _K'vort_ -Class heavy BoP, eighteen _B'rel_ -class BoP, three _B'rolth_ -class BoP, three _Koloth_ -class BoP, three _Kor_ -class BoP, a _Vor'cha_ -class attack cruiser, a _Kamarag_ -Class attack cruiser, and a _Negh'Var_ -Class heavy attack cruiser.

The Romulans sent a _Jhu'Ael_ -class Tactical Carrier Warbird, a _D'deridex_ -class warbird, a _Tulwar_ -Class dreadnought warbird, a _Norexan_ -class medium warbird, a _Dhelan_ -class medium warbird, a _Ha'apax_ -class heavy warbird, a _Aves_ -class science destroyer, and twenty four _T'Varo_ -class light warbirds.

And it didn't stop there, as the Breen sent a _Chel Grett_ -class heavy cruiser, a _Rezreth_ -Class dreadnought, a _Sarr Theln_ -Class carrier, and six _Plesh Brek_ -Class heavy frigates. The Benthan Protectorate sent a Guard Cruiser, the Kazon-Ogla and Prolmar sent six _Raider_ -class attack craft and a _Predator_ -Class heavy battlecarrier, the Kobali sent a _Samsar_ -class heavy cruiser, the Vaadwaur sent a _Astika_ -class heavy battlecruiser and two Manasa-class heavy destroyers, and even the Borg Cooperative deployed six Cubes and twelve Spheres.

All of this leading to a grand total of 159 starships, including the _Damascus_ herself… all over Earth Space Dock, all wanting to bring back one single man and his crew.

"Ok, that's a lot of you ID some of them?"

"I've got two high profiles, Captain: the IKS _Bortasqu_ and the RRW _Leiset_. They're sending their flagships to assist."

"And I know why. New Romulus was only saved by my son's intervention three times over, the Klingons don't want to lose the only man in the Federation with the balls to stand up to their Chancellor and I think he accidentally created a religion in the Delta Quadrant where they consider him the son of a god."

Ryoko huffed. "Amusing. Open a channel to the flagships, please. I'm going to want to talk to Captain Koren and Commander Jarok before we leave."

The new Bolian tactical officer opened a channel to the _Enterprise_ , the _Bortasqu'_ and the _Lieset_. The first to appear was Va'kel Shon, the first Andorian to command a Starfleet vessel named _Enterprise_. Shon was a native of Vega 9 colony, which was assimilated by the Borg in 2409 at the same time Ron was freed from the collective, losing his wife and child in the doing. He only took command of the F after Data convinced him to do so and a bit of a kick in the ass by Ron.

Koren, daughter of Grilka, appeared next, to the right of Shon. Worf's adopted daughter, Koren rose to command the _Bortasqu'_ in the heat of battle. She fought long and hard, but in the end, she had to give the 'scariest motherfucker in the known galaxy' award to Ron after he intimidated the Klingons into accepting a ceasefire then reestablishing the Khitomer Accords.

To Shon's left was their Romulan counterpart, Tiaru Jarok, commander of the Romulan Republic Warbird _Lieset_ , which translated into english as 'freedom'. Her history was actually linked to that of the Enterprise, when her father, Admiral Alidar Jarok, defected to the Federation, only for him to have been used as a source _of_ disinformation. The worst part? He didn't even know that he was being used until he had, unwittingly, led the _Enterprise-_ D into a trap. It only took _Picard_ laying a trap within a trap by using three _K'vort_ -Class heavy birds of prey to counter Tomulak's two _D'Deridex_ -Class warbirds. The poor bastard committed suicide less than a day afterward, his daughter growing up under the glare of the Tal Shiar, the Romulan Empire's version of the Nazi German _Geheime Staatspolizei_ , more commonly known as the Gestapo.

But she broke away after the destruction of Romulus, allowing her to actually thrive in the Romulan Republic.

"Huh…" Ryoko muttered. "Well at least we have some familiar faces."

 _"I attended the Academy with Captain Pinkerton, Councilwoman: did you think I was going to just let you have all the fun?"_ Shon asked, antennae curling in mirth.

"We weren't exactly expecting this many ships. One or two, maybe."

Koren huffed. " _You underestimate your son's pull on galactic affairs! He humiliated the Empire, defeated the Iconians, drove thousands of crews insane with his… trolling, is it called? Humans are strange, indeed._ "

" _And more ships are soon to arrive._ " Jarok informed, causing several people's eyes to bulge out at the thought of _more_ ships. _"Someone put out a major call to arms and everyone's answering it. Besides, I owe him for saving my new homeworld._ "

"Well… glad to have you all here." Ryoko said, "I actually was a bit worried I'd be going with Ayame alone."

Ayame blinked "Wait, Councilwoman-"

"Ayame, you _know_ you're not the most… _gentle_ with politics and diplomacy," Ryoko said with a knowing smile. "If you're going into the multiverse, _with_ all of these starships from every major galactic power in our universe, and meeting powers from _other_ multiverses, you need someone who can keep people from shooting at us and each other. "

"Oh, very well. Not like I can stop you, anyways. Tom, escort the Councilwoman to guest quarters." The MACO Lieutenant Colonel that served as her XO stood up, nodding to Ryoko as the pair left the bridge, entering the rear port turbolift. "Just so we're clear, the primary reason we're all here is to find the _Ra Cailum_. We stick together, we avoid as much combat as possible, we move fast until we find that ship. We'll be leaving as soon as the wormhole drive is online, which should be in another few minutes."

" _Understood,_ " came the reply. " _We'll be ready_."

As the channel ended, Ayame caught a glimpse of the _Chronos_ dreadnought again, and caught its name: USS _Examia_.

She'd heard of a ship of that name in Spec Ops Section 6… but it was supposedly a _Sovereign_ -class.

Either they had an in with the Temporal Agents and holographic camouflage, or something else was going on.

And given that STIG, the parent group for Section 6, was almost certainly the front organization for Sanjuuichi, she was betting the former.

" _This is engineering: secondary dilithium chamber is in place. But if we're going anywhere, we're going to need to sync the warp fields of every ship in the fleet._ "

"It's been done before: _Columbia_ did the same for _Enterprise_ when the Klingons fucked with their warp drive."

 _"That was two ships, boss lady; we've got over 160 in this fleet!"_

Ayame groaned. And she kept that moron as her engineer for 30 years because he knew what she wanted out of her ship. "Contact all of your counterparts: prep the fleet for departure. Pinkerton out!"

The rear tactical console began beeping. "Captain, hail from _Examia_ and ESD. They're requesting to speak with you."'

"Patch 'em through." Ayame said, as the bridge of the _Examia_ appeared. "This is _Damascus_ actual, what the fuck do you want?"

" _Hello again, Captain,_ " Hayate said from the _Examia_ 's bridge. " _I'll be deferring to your orders for the journey. And I'm sending a data packet on the full capabilities of my ship over to you - I'd appreciate it if you reviewed them in private, keeping them quiet as a trump card until we need to reveal them._ "

"You know I don't give a fuck about that."

" _That brings us to the other thing. When we link up with the_ Ra Cailum _, your son will be taking command of the fleet._ "

"Over an Admiral?"

" _He is being_ promoted _to Fleet Admiral, something the President thinks is long overdue. He united the galaxy against the Iconians. He deserves it._ "

Ayame snarled, but said nothing. Mother and son hated the brass for a reason.

" _It's going to be a long journey, Captain: let's try to get through this as quickly as we can._ " The link cut out, leaving them with the view forward.

"Prepare to go to warp speed. Inform the fleet that anyone that wants off gets off now or they're stuck with us."

* * *

It was endless, looking out over the surrounding area a man with short brown hair and green eyes sighed as he gazed out over the uncountable number of gateways before him. Truly, being a Sorcerer of the Far Gates was an endless, and often, thankless job as he ensured that the Outsiders and Elder Gods from beyond reality were kept there. Despite the numerous number of realities before him, his eyes picked out a specific speck within the infinite creation, a certain universe jumping ship that was heading towards a massive swirl of chaos and darkness. "Now that isn't acceptable," he murmured to himself as he gestured his hand and uttered an arcane incantation that obliterated the mass of chaos, leaving the ship with a clear path. "Things have been getting interesting," he commented.

Looking around, his eyes landed on a certain sector of space from the home dimension of the ship, where a race of bioorganic collective tried to control the entire universe. "Some other time," he dismissed the vision of the Borg before looking on the ship once more, more importantly it's destination. "It's been awhile since I've been home," he commented as he opened a portal. "Might as well check in on my great-godson while I'm at it."

Letting out a small chuckle he stepped through the portal he created, one connected to a certain ship. "Should make life interesting for a while, if nothing else," he mused.

He glared at a slab-sided cube in space. If they weren't necessary in that universe, he would've destroyed them after that disaster 40 years ago. The Borg sickened him.

But he had to let them go: they had roles even they did not know to fill.

He walked through, traps activating as soon as he was through.

Being the defender of reality was a thankless job...

But DAMN was he good at it. And 90 years ago, Starfleet gave him a few ideas on traps.

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: Ruby, drumroll please!**

 **Ruby: (drum set out of nowhere)**

 **Ron the True Fan: Introducing our newest and most drunken co-author! He needs no introduction, though.**

 **DragonKnightRyu: Sup, agent of chaos and alcohol here… there… there… and behind you, howdy.**

 **Weiss: You? They must be getting desperate.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Nope.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: He's a good friend of ours, but not the most well-versed in some of our source material. But he's finally joining us for a proper Trek fic, even if it is a mega-crossover.**

 **DKR: *belches in Weiss' face* That and I just want to witness chaos first hand, and stir the pot even more.**

 **Yang: You remind me of Qrow.**

 **Ron the True Fan: He might be based on Ryu to a point. Either way, I'd better stock up on the good stuff. Because sooner or later, he's going to pull out his theme song. And I don't want to run out of rum.**

 **DKR: It ain't a pretty sight, let's just say… those poor Borg will never overcome the trauma that happened when I ran out of booze on their ship… Sober me scares me.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Don't let Raven get a hold of your drinks.**

 **Weiss: I NEED BLEACH! I NEED BLEACH! *Runs around screaming***

 **Jorn: I don't think we were gonna crossover Bleach… Ron?**

 **Ron the True Fan: Well, it's not on the list, but we'll investigate the option. (Hands gallon jug to Weiss)**

 **DKR: Well I- *Tries to drink from flask, only for flask to explode***

 **Ruby: *Glares at Ryu with Crescent Rose* You. Made. Weiss. CRY.**

 **RA: Welp, you're screwed.**

 **Ron the True Fan: RUN!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	39. Chapter 39

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

The fleet dropped out of the wormhole, the _Ra Cailum_ at the head of the formation as usual. After a day and a half of jumping away from T'ket, they arrived in the next universe.

"And the signature still doesn't match." Cassie threw her hands up in frustration. "I'm getting sick of this shit."

"Cocksucking motherfucking SON OF A PROTESTANT WHORE!" Ron shouted, punching and denting an unfortunate piece of bulkhead in his frustration."I am getting sick and fucking tired of jumping around the multiverse! We have been doing this for almost a year!"

"And now you know how _my_ job feels," A new voice commented in amusement near the elevator.

As one, everyone turned and pulled out a phaser or bladed weapon, pointing them all at the source of the voice.

All except Ron and Riza. That voice sounded familiar.

"Hm, haven't had this many pointed objects pointed in my direction since I last visited the Elder God Tzunach," A brown haired, green eyed man commented in amusement, his black t-shirt and cargo pants with a sleeveless hooded overcoat standing out amongst the uniforms.

Ron pressed a control on his chair to rotate it around to face the newcomer.

"Uh… sir? Usually you'd be the first to pull out a weapon and start shooting." Corpsa asked, only sparing a glance at Ron. "So if you don't mind me asking—"

"Why aren't I jumping out of my chair and making every attempt to rip our intruder's head off?"

The Andorian shrugged. "More or less."

"Because he's familiar. I can't place him, but I know him from somewhere."

"Well, the last time I saw you was on your sixth birthday when you grandfather's friend gave you a toy dragon," The stranger informed with a chuckle, looking around the bridge, strangely at ease with all the weapons pointed at him.

Riza finally spun around from her post at the helm. "Wait, I still have that toy. He gave it to me when I turned four."

Ron got out of his chair, waving the bridge crew down. "Lower your weapons."

"Sir?!"

"Lower them. Now. He's a friend of the family." As his tone brooked no disobedience, they lowered their knives and type-2 phasers before holstering them.

The stranger chuckled in response. "I'm quite surprised with how well the metal your ships use are able to retain enchantments," he commented as he placed a hand onto the hull, a faded rune flashing to life briefly onto it. "Even after being recasted into a new shape, hell, most metals only hold enchantments for a decade at most."

"And who the hell are you? The last time Starfleet had any encounters with magic bullshit was over 150 years ago!"

"152 years, 4 months, 3 weeks and 5 days: the _Enterprise_ NCC-1701's visit to Magus-Tu." Ryu chuckled. "Yeah, Sulu mentioned that when I paid a visit to her ship. That was fun. The name's Ryu, by the way."

Sonja blinked. "Wait, there was only one Sulu in Starfleet that was a girl. Are you talking about Demora Sulu?"

"Yup," The wizard commented with a smirk. "She and your grandfather, Ron, Riza, helped me seal up a gate to beyond reality to prevent an Elder God invasion when I ended up in your home universe by accident."

"I have the report on that: Starfleet Intelligence classified that to captains and above. The Borg actually want nothing to do with that shit after they got it from us at Wolf 359."

"Don't talk to me about Wolf 359," Ryu growled. "If it weren't for defending against those Elder Gods, the Borg would be a stain on the floor in your Delta Quadrant. And how would you know about it?"

"Because they removed half of my brain and most of my internal organs, replacing 70% of my body mass with cybernetics?"

"Hm, going to have to remember that," the guardian muttered quietly under his breath. "Anyways, I decided to check in on my great-godson… or… would it be grand-godson?" he mused for a minute before shrugging it off. "Your ship will be arriving in my home reality right about… now actually."

"Well, as the old saying goes, any advanced sufficiently technology—"

"Can be mistaken for magic? Your grandpa said the same thing. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Who knows?"

The turbolift suddenly opened as Jaden stepped out. "Hey Ron, I checked the readings and-" He paused as he looked at the crew, and then looked at Ryu, sizing him up. "…the fuck are you?"

Ryu shrugged. "Ron and Riza's grandfather's old friend whose responsibility is the continued existence of the infinite realities that comprise existence," he replied humorously. "Either that or a hobo."

"…I would believe both really," Jaden said, "Hanging out with Ron and friends tends to broaden my horizons a bit more."

"Including sexual ones."

Jaden turned on his heel and pointed a type-1 phaser at Ron."YOU SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH!"

Ron and Ryu laughed before the captain quirked an eyebrow and cocked his head. "Cassie, are you picking up tachyon and chroniton particles in Earth's atmosphere?"

The enhanced innovade looked at her console, tapping it. "Yes, how did you—"

"DTI drilled into my head that if I caused any time travelling bullshit, my career in Starfleet would come to an effective end, so I make sure the computer notifies me via the transceiver in my spine."

"Hm," Ryu hummed in response, a crackling aura surrounding him for a few moments. "If it weren't for the fact that the Borg are essential at the moment, I would have vaporized them…"

"Well, someone's fucking around with time travel and I want nothing to do with it."

"Well, you're partly right. Someone IS fucking around with time magic." Ryu quickly cast a spell, narrowing his eyes. "To the point of universal collapse: whoever's doing this is either a novice or completely _insane_."

"My bet's on the latter." Everyone glanced at Ron questioningly. "Crazy knows crazy."

Ryu shrugged. "Well, I still have to rip him apart from the very seams of his existence for making me fix all the damage he's done," he commented dryly. "I'm the Sorcerer of the Far Gates, and I can't even do my job properly because the Sorcerer of Time is outsourcing his overflow to me because there's just so much goddamn damage being caused!"

A surge was heard before Ryu glanced at Ron, holding his compression rifle, while his sister had a collapsible scythe in hand.

"Ok…?"

"Someone's fucking around with your universe and it's my job to make sure no one's fucking with time travel. And you're basically family, so that's more of an excuse for us to go down there and kill everything that's causing this bullshit."

Ryu snorted in amusement as he looked them over. "Alright," he allowed with a shrug. "But, I tell you this now, if I tell you to run, you are to run under no uncertain terms, the fact is, what I face on a normal basis makes what Starfleet helped me with look like a minor border skirmish."

"You haven't seen what we've dealt with in the last 3 years. I presume you're familiar with the transporter?"

"Yeah, I just don't like it. Prefer portal magic, personally. I'll take it if I have to, but I prefer not to."

Ron shrugged. "McCoyism."

Ryu scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, your gramps said the same thing."

"Well, you want to portal down, I got no problems. We just need to get down fast."

Ryu shrugged he made a gesture, space seeming to tear open before them into a black rift. "Follow me then," He instructed with a wry grin. "And don't think too hard on what you see inside of the portal, some things are not for mortal _or_ immortal comprehension."

The two Starfleet officers entered the portal, ignoring just about everything they saw before Ryu walked through and shut the portal behind them.

Sonja just shook her head. "Just another day on the _Ra Cailum_."

* * *

What would you do if you had someone you cared about, more than life itself?

And all you could do was protect them from the thing they were destined to become?

One girl attempted to defy fate for over 500 years from her perspective. She turned from a shy, depressive emotional wreck into a hard-assed cryptic bitch with enough weapons to destroy a city at times.

But Homura Akemi was nothing if not determined.

And so that fucking bunny-cat would die many times before she was through and the Incubators got the point.

Madoka Kaname was out of bounds.

She dropped from the ceiling, MK XIX Desert Eagle in hand as she glared at the injured creature in Madoka's arms, Sayaka Miki attempting to shield her pink-haired friend from the seeming maniac.

"The transfer student? What are you doing here? And where'd you get the gun?"

"That's irrelevant, Sayaka Miki. Get out of my way."

"Now I'd say this seems like Deja Vu to me, but I have to say my friend never had access to high powered hand-cannons and I wasn't protecting… a Pokemon?" A voice interrupted the standoff making the girls jump in surprise.

Two people wearing black and grey uniforms stood beside someone wearing more normal clothes, the two carrying weapons that were unfamiliar to Homura, although the scythe sure as hell wasn't normal. The man in uniform chuckled. "We'll, never thought I'd see one of those outside the Collective. Species 1946. I thought they were extinct."

The air suddenly shifted. " _Captain, subspace rift forming in your area; what the fuck is going on down—_ "

"Standby, _Ra Cailum_." Ron looked at Ryu, chuckling. "Time for some bullshit. Care to show us what you can do?"

The dark mall corridors were replaced with somewhat 'cartoony' rose gardens, with stick figures with little fluffs for heads walking down a path.

"Alright, who has been fucking with the Gates?" Ryu questioned, his voice cold as he looked down at the creature that approached them.

The figures only began singing in distorted German, Ryu barely getting the garbled lyrics while Ron's positronic brain filtered it all out. "They're not going to listen. They're servants of the master of this maze. I recommend burning it."

"I would burn it anyways if fire wasn't its' weakness, Ron."

"Who says that this thing's weakness? I just want it to burn."

"Step back," Ryu told the siblings as runic glyphs appeared along the trim of his overcoat, the hood coming up over his head on its own as he stepped forward. "As the one responsible for the Outer Gates, it is my job to dispose of Despaired Ones like this one."

He held out his hands from his body as he gathered his power. " **Ignus Shantus Koil,** " he incanted before a searing heat blasted out before him, incinerating the creature, along with a good majority of the surrounding area. "Now… will one of you explain to me, who it is that is showing people how to manifest their souls in such a dangerous fashion?"

The labyrinth faded away before Homura attempted to grab the Incubator, but Ron was faster. "Ah-ah, you got a question to answer."

"How interesting." Ron and Ryu glared at the bunny-cat. "Adult human males that can see us and magical beings? Interesting."

"Seeing as you were fucked back home, you got no right to talk, Incubator."

Kyubey looked at Ron, who changed the color of his right eye. "Cybernetic enhancements. It seems we failed here as well."

"The question."

Homura gestured to the Incubator. "This thing is responsible for turning us into Puella Magi."

"'Magical girls'?" Ron translated, scoffing. "More like abominations of nature."

"That is putting it lightly," Ryu announced as he stepped closer, his anger visible in the form of eldritch lighting crackling over his body. "To put your soul in such a form is _not_ necessary to use magic, I didn't think that there was a race stupid enough to actually collectively try and summon the Old Ones into reality that they existed in."

"When you face a force that threatens all of your kind as well as the necessary tools you need to prevent—"

"No excuses. Ryu, my niece deserves a new plushy; mind if I turn this little twit into one?"

"Sure, but these things have a hive mind: if you kill it—"

"Who said anything about killing?" He grabbed it and revealed his injection tubules, sticking into the Incubator's body before the click of a gun was heard. A blonde girl with twin-tails pointed a wheellock musket at Ron's head.

"Put Kyubey down. _Now_."

"That won't do anything to me."

 _BANG_! The round impacted his head, but the captain's personal shields deflected it harmlessly. "Told you."

"Girl, _stand down_ ," Ryu growled, lightning sparking off his body. "This _thing_ you are trying to protect has in fact made it possible for you and others like you to become a Despaired One who would bring forth Elder Gods to consume and destroy this reality."

She dropped the gun, though more in shock of Ron's head being perfectly intact. "Be thankful my shields are up. That bullet would've torn my scalp off. I think we need to get back to the _Ra Cailum_ , deal with this thing and them in orbit."

"Agreed. I want to know what the hell has been going on in my universe."

" _Ra Cailum,_ lock onto all lifesigns in a ten-meter radius and beam us up."

* * *

On the ship, things were about to get worse.

Much worse.

"You are going to give me the location of your planet or I _will_ show you what you are trying to bring about," Ryu growled as the Incubator was being held by its throat. Ryu's eyes glowed, lightning sparking off of his body. All in all, he was a terrifying figure.

"You will never find anything, Sorcerer."

"Wanna bet? I bet my godson knows EXACTLY where it is. I just want to get it out of YOU before I bother him about it."

Ryu raised a point: as a former drone, Ron probably did know the location of the Incubator homeworld, at least in their universe.

But that was iffy: in every universe, things were different.

"Besides, _he_ only wants to make you a plushy, what _I_ want to do to you would give the _Elder Gods_ nightmares," Ryu added in, smiling. "Trust me, when I'm done with you, you will _beg_ for death."

The Incubator was not impressed, but being emotionless, that was par for the course.

That being said, the Incubator was about to become the least of Ryu's problems. " _Bridge to Hisanaga: we have a problem._ " Ron called down.

"What is it?"

" _Remember the blackhead with the magnum? She's trying to get to guest quarters to grab that girl and beam back to the ground. And she's_ leaking _chroniton particles._ "

Ryu sighed in response and tossed the Incubator back into the containment. "On my way," he informed. "She's the one messing with the time stream unfortunately."

 _"I figured as much."_

"I'll have to deal with her. Shame, though."

" _You're not the only one: science and magic are part and parcel and the Borg had some experience with time manipulation thanks to the Krenim. If she pulls anything, you might need help._ "

"I can handle it," Ryu assured as he made his way to where she was. "Besides, she's been able to use her time magic for however long with that _thing_ putting her soul into a gem and not lose herself to despair? I could use an apprentice with that kind of determination."

* * *

Homura walked down the halls of the _Ra Cailum_ , magnum in hand. The Incubator was dealt with, so all she needed to do was get back to the surface.

She knew she was in space: hell, before the entire Puella Magi debacle, she was a Trekkie, her heart keeping her from any physical activities until it was healed by her magic. So she knew how to navigate the starship, operate some of its' controls and such.

But this ship was different from the _Enterprise_ -D and E from the show and movies. It was more advanced. From their future, maybe.

That didn't matter anymore. Madoka was the only thing important to her.

"Before you go off and do something stupid, you should really think this course of action through," a familiar voice stated as Ryu stepped out from around a corner, cutting her path off. "Do you know what's going to happen to you now that your little time loop is finished?"

"I do not care. Madoka is the only thing that matters. Her safety is paramount."

"Yeah, I get that. But if you loop again—"

"The Incubator is dealt with. Get out of my way or suffer the consequences. I have enough experience in dealing with other Puella Magi; you are no different."

"Maybe…" From behind, Ron came from another fork, rifle in hand. "But I doubt you can take two of us."

"I don't need the help, Ron." Ryu admonished.

"Maybe not, but it's my ship. I kinda have to make sure this dumb bitch doesn't do anything really stupid."

Ryu sighed and shook his head. "Homura, now that your little loops are over, you have less than a year to live," he revealed seriously. "You don't think the loops take a personal toll? They do, humans have a finite lifespan, even if you wind back time, your _soul_ still ages until you drop _dead_ , then who will protect that girl."

Homura pulled back the hammer on her gun. "As long as she is safe."

"She's fucking nuts. You want to take her down or should I?"

She spun her shield, stopping time for the universe and everything in it.

Except for two people.

Ryu's magical wards kept him from freezing in place.

Ron's experience with the Krenim, generating a temporal field that counteracted it, did the same. "Ok, bitch, now it's time for blood."

"Ron, _stand down,_ " Ryu's voice cut him off, his eyes keeping steady on Homura's. "Even if you end up killing her with your actions? Do you not care about that, Homura Akemi?"

The Puella Magi's eyes finally came to focus on Ryu. He wasn't getting through. The only way she was going to listen was if she was forced to.

That and a few thousand hours of psychological help. The bitch was nuts. Capable, but crazy.

Ryu sighed in response as he raised a hand. " **Corpus,** " he enchanted, sending a bolt of magic to slam into Homura who froze as her body slumped. "Hate doing this to freakin' kids," he muttered under his breath as he shook his head. "C'mon, let's get her someplace safe, she's going to be a bit of a mess once she comes out of it."

"Safest place for all of us, her included, is the brig."

"You're going to put her in a jail cell?"

"Do we have another option? She's small enough to crawl into the vent ducts of standard crew quarters. I'd rather stuff her in the brig with an antichronoton field generator, that way she tries the time stop crap, she won't do anything." Ron picked her up, putting her in a fireman's carry. "It's safer for her and us. I'll call the doctor just in case."

"Fine, but call me as soon as she wakes up," Ryu informed. "I'm going to need to do some major work with her to make sure she doesn't die before the year is out."

"Done." Ron walked off, carrying the temperamental girl with him before he entered a turbolift. "Deck 23, section 54B."

* * *

Sayaka Miki was geeking out.

This was a Federation starship. A Starfleet ship!

She knew the basics of that universe: the Prime Directive and such, so she wasn't going to be causing too much trouble if they went back to the ground.

Like she wanted to! This was something she dreamed about!

"Judging from your reaction, this is yet another universe where we're fictional," Takeshi said as he was guiding her through the ship.

"Yeah, well, I'm not much of an expert on Star Trek: I've watched TNG and a bit of Voyager, but… this isn't a _Galaxy_ -Class ship, is it?"

" _Odyssey_ -Class. Two steps up from the _Galaxy_. Same class as the _Enterprise_ -F, though."

"Wait, what happened to the _Enterprise_ -D? And the _Enterprise_ -E for that matter?"

"D was destroyed at Viridian III," Takeshi informed. "It was shown in the movie Star Trek Generations. The E lasted until about 2408, when it was destroyed by the Undine."

"Undine?"

"You might know them as Species 8472 from Voyager."

"Oh, yeah, the ones that almost killed Harry Kim. …Did he finally get a promotion?"

"He's captain of the _Rhode Island_."

"Big ship?"

" _Nova_ -Class refit."

"What, like the _Equinox_? …Sucks to be him."

"He's been doing well for himself, no matter what the ship he's in," Takeshi admitted. "Tom has, too."

"Oh?"

"USS _Mercury_ ," Takeshi explained. "First of a brand new line of high mobility escorts. Think the speed and maneuverability of a fighter with the size and firepower of the _Defiant_."

"The what?"

"…The USS _Defiant_."

"Never heard of it. Unless you're talking about the one from The Original Series."

Takeshi did not understand how she could not know about the _Defiant_. It made no sense.

"OK, we're going to have to show you the ship that even in our universe got the nickname of 'Ben Sisko's Motherfucking Pimp Hand'." He gestured. "Follow me, we've got a theater set up just for watching Trek."

He followed her down the hall. "You've never watched Deep Space Nine?"

"Closest I've gotten was that episode involving the _Enterprise_ at the station. I never saw it because the series never played back home."

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Nope. I barely know anything about that little conflict with the Dominion thanks to an episode of _Voyager_ involving the _Prometheus_ and I never finished watching it."

"Right," Takeshi replied. "Well, you'll see the _Defiant_ in action soon enough."

* * *

A few hours later, Sayaka had watched both parts of 'The Search', as well as the 'Defiant' episode with Thomas Riker, 'The Way of the Warrior', and a few other episodes highlighting the _Defiant_ in action.

"That's not a Starfleet ship."

"What? It is."

"Starfleet ships are explorers. That thing is a warship. Starfleet does _not_ have warships."

She had a point: the 'escort' title was a thin disguise for the fact that it was a warship. The _Defiant_ was a gunboat.

"Well, the thing was originally designed after Wolf 359 - I assume you saw The Best of Both Worlds?"

"I did, yes… so it was originally designed as a Borg killer. Didn't work as intended, apparently. The Borg are still around, aren't they?"

"Yeah."

"So it failed on all counts." The _Defiant_ was an excellent ship, but for her intended job, killing Borg ships, she was a complete, total and absolute failure.

"Maybe. Still, it may have failed in its intended role, but it certainly proved useful when shit hit the fan, like when the Klingons invaded Cardassia, and when fighting the Dominion."

"So, did the borg invade Earth again?"

"Yeah, they tried 6 years after Wolf 359."

"And what stopped them?"

"…The _Enterprise_ -E."

"So whatever the _Enterprise-_ E's class is, it's better than the _Defiant_."

Takeshi's eye twitched. The _Sovereign_ -Class may have outgunned the Defiant twice over, but she was bulkier. On the other hand, Riza. "Maybe," he said. "Here, let me bring up some footage…"

Soon after, Sayaka was watching _First Contact_ , watching various scenes of the E in action.

"...That is a beautiful ship."

* * *

An 18 by 8 foot cell greeted Ryu when he arrived at the brig. There were no bars, but he was familiar with Starfleet's force field devices, which were like barrier magic with technology.

Sometimes he wondered if the two were right and that magic and science weren't so dissimilar. He wouldn't know: until he met the crew of the _Enterprise_ -B, he never bothered questioning it.

Sitting on the bed/couch was Homura, who simply glared at the floor.

"I hope you understand _why_ I did what I did," Ryu commented after a few moments of silence. "I don't like using that on people who have potential to do something with their lives."

"Madoka is the only thing that matters." She intoned, like she had many times over the years.

"Yeah, I got that."

"Let me out of this cell. Now."

Clearly, Homura was pissed off. Her self-imposed mission to save Madoka was interrupted by him and Starfleet.

Mostly him: they were just bystanders.

Ryu folded his arms across his chest. "Not until we have a serious talk," he told her. "You have an amazing potential to actually _save_ people, not just Madoka, I want to bring that potential out."

"I don't care about other people."

"THAT, you've made abundantly clear. What is she to you?"

"…She saved me. I was weak and she saved my life. I watched as she sacrificed herself to stop a monstrosity, and I couldn't take it. So I made a wish to that Incubator. I went back in time to save Madoka. I succeeded once. She turned into a witch. I looped back again."

"And you kept going."

"I have nothing to live for but Madoka."

"Is that why she saved your life?" Ryu asked pointedly. "So that you would ignore every other life but her own when she sacrificed her life for reality to continue on existing?"

"I _have_ nothing else. If she turns into Krimhild Gretchen, everything will die."

"Well, I sense some truth from that, but it's more selfish. You don't care about the rest of humanity. You just want her."

"…I don't know what I feel."

Ryu sighed as he shook his head. "Kid, you were forced to grow up way too soon and in a bad way," he told her. "While I have nothing against lesbian relationships, you need to develop yourself in a more healthy manner before you could make either yourself, or her, happy."

"…I have no idea how to do that. All I know is fighting."

Five centuries old and she was fucked in the head so badly that she didn't know how to change.

The Incubators were going to _suffer_.

* * *

"She's suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and enough psychological problems that no one could treat her effectively alone." Rutia finished her listing and prognosis.

Ron huffed. "She's fucking insane and _obsessed_ with Madoka. The only reason she's not floating out the airlock right now is because I'd rather have you deal with her. Magic's your arena."

Ryu snorted at Ron and his Trill chief medical officer. "Is that a Starfleet regulation?"

"It was introduced shortly after the incident."

Ryu snorted again. "I _might_ be able to help her, but… mental magic ain't exactly my specialty," he admitted. "That's more of the Sorcerer of Dreams domain."

"Figured. I'll have my ship's counselors get ready for a long haul."

"Won't that be fun for me."

Ryu looked at Rutia. "You're a medical doctor."

"With two lifetimes as a psychologist. I'm more than qualified. We just need to worry about her getting us killed first."

"I can help with that," Ryu assured. "I've already sent out word to the Dreamer, but who knows if they'll actually show up."

"We'll stay in orbit, keep an eye out for any further temporal distortions. If it was just Homura, I'd be more secure, but I doubt it's just her. Something is very wrong with your universe."

"Agreed," Ryu nodded. "Let me know if you find something please, even if it seems like a glitch."

"If we find anything, it'll be bad."

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: And that ended badly.**

 **DKR: Like anything with Madoka does?**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Sometimes fanfic gives them a happy ending, but yeah, that's fanfic, and not usually one of _our_ fanfics.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: And all the magic stuff is going right over my head. Ugh, give me science any day...**

 **117Jorn: Ugh… not much of a bitter-sweet ending fan myself…**

 **Ron the True Fan: Could be worse.**

 **Ruby: How?**

 **Ron the True Fan: You have NO idea what we have in store for Raven in the following arcs...**

 **Ja Ne!**


	40. Chapter 40

**USS Ra Cailum**

* * *

"Well, through brief work, I can say this: Homura is fucked in the head." Rutia declared.

"We already KNEW that."

"No, as in REALLY fucked in the head. She's guilt-wracked, probably from watching Madoka die fuck knows how many times, saw everyone she knew die at least 5 times and has had no emotional support since… ever. The only thing keeping her going is her self-imposed mission to save the pink-haired girl."

"Bout 500 years worth of time loops will do that to someone," Ryu commented with a shrug. "Kinda hard to stay sane reliving the same moment of time over and over again and being unable to change it."

Ron shook his head. "I'll keep her on the ship, if only to make sure she gets the psych help she needs. As soon as we both deem her ready to be handed over to you, you can take her."

"Quick to get rid of her, are we?"

"You need help guarding the gates, I want to safeguard my ship and crew. As far as I'm concerned, it's win-win."

Ryu chuckled. "Let me know when you get the blond sorted out too," he informed. "I try not to put all my eggs into a single basket."

"Speaking of which, where IS the dumbass?"

Rutia shrugged before Ron groaned. "She's on the ground, isn't she?"

"Yup. trying to get herself killed. She wants to die, let her. As long as it's not in my sickbay."

If it weren't for the fact that Rutia was the most pragmatic doctor Ryu knew, he'd call her a heartless bitch.

At least she wasn't Beverly Crusher or Katherine Pulaski: bleeding hearts had no place on a starship.

Ryu growled all the same. "Fucking hell girl, what the hell is she thinking?" he muttered as he slashed open a portal. "I told her I'd help her, _but no!_ Don't listen to the centuries old Sorcerer!"

"I'LL deal with her. My crew fucked up, so I'll fix the problem. Cassie, find Tomoe: I need to shove my boot up her ass!"

"Hang on, I'm… shit, she's not down there. She must've entered a subspace pocket." Ron started muttering under his breath in multiple languages before opening one of the weapons lockers in the medical bay, removing a standard phaser rifle.

Shows how pissed off he is when he's not getting his personal gun. "Beam me down there."

"Ron, I should go with you. You're not an expert in magic—"

"The Borg dealt with this shit, too. Sometimes you can find a scientific solution to a magical problem. You want to tag along, that's your choice, but this is MY responsibility."

"Fine," Ryu sighed as he shook his head. "But this time, I _am_ putting her soul back into her body, by force if I have to."

"Done. I'll bring her back alive. Cassie, energize!"

Ron disappeared in a shower of light, looking downright PISSED.

Ryu couldn't blame him.

* * *

In Kazamino, Sayaka was wandering around. The bluenette had been reported missing, presumed dead back home and she was fine with that.

She wanted to go with the _Ra Cailum_ : it was a trekkie's DREAM to be on a Federation starship.

But when she entered a labyrinth, she assumed she was going to die. That was the general rule, after all.

At least until a spear head slammed into the witch.

While we COULD go into the identity of the witch and the ensuing battle, the important thing was that Sayaka was still alive, saved by Kazamino's resident foulmouthed Puella Magi, Kyoko Sakura.

"Fuck's sake, leave me alone already!"

She felt… _drawn_ to the redhead somehow, and continued to stay with her, despite her protests.

"I'm not going anywhere."

"And why should you?"

Both girls froze. Kyoko blinked in confusion.

Sayaka, on the other hand, knew that voice. Seven seasons of _glorious_ asshole was hard to forget.

She turned, and there he was, looking just like John de Lancie, but in a very familiar uniform.

"Q…" she whispered.

"Ah, so I'm famous here!"

"More like infamous." Sayaka started off on a traditional Trekkie tirade. "You were a COLOSSAL pain in the ass for the _Enterprise_. Causing nothing but trouble, ruining missions, that whole incident with the Calamarian…"

"I've done more good than you would think."

"No. You haven't."

Kyoko groaned. "Who the fuck is this guy?!"

"Moi?" the man asked with an obviously faked French accent. "Why, as the beautiful young lady next to you has stated, I am Q."

"Q."

"Yes."

"As in the English letter?"

"I am omnipotent, omniscient—"

"Obnoxious."

"My dear, if it were not for the fact that dear Ronald is in the same sector of space, I would punish you for that."

Sayaka grinned. "You fear Ron?"

"The Q have learned two things from that glorious bastard: that you can't predict him and the only predictable thing is that when he runs into something, it dies." He sighed. "At least Sisko only punched me in the face, and that only the once. Ronald comes after me with…" he shuddered. "Chainsaws."

"…I'm liking this Ronald guy a lot more."

"Trust me, Kyoko, the man is AWESOME. He can even kill witches if his godfather would let him." The redhead chuckled. Suddenley, Q's eyes widened.

"He's on the ground. That would be my cue to leave. I do not want a chainsaw to the face again."

"Come on, stay! If he can't kill you, what's the harm?"

"How about a pissed off Sorcerer?" A new voice inputted in a clearly agitated tone as Ryu appeared nearby. "I thought I was clear when I said your race wasn't welcome in my backyard?"

Q sighed as he looked over at the newcomer. "Oh, you."

"Don't 'you' me. You might be basically gods to Ron and his people, but the Elder Gods are, too. I might not be able to kill you, but I CAN make you bleed."

"Well, now I know where he gets it from." the 'god' leaned forward a little, stage whispering. "Sure you're not his father? You two have the same disposition when it comes to us."

"Greatgodfather and you know _damn_ well why I don't want you tromping around after _your_ actions caused an **_ELDER GOD INVASION_** ," Ryu growled angrily. "And don't think that I'm not able to kill you, wouldn't be the first time I killed an immortal."

"Excuse ME for not being around for that memo."

The Sorcerer of the Far Gates could understand where Ron stood with the Q.

He hated them, too.

…And he hatched a nasty plan to deal with him. As soon as Ron was done with Tomoe, he'd teleport him over here to see what he would do.

Magically disinclined or not, normals were VERY inventive when they chose to be.

* * *

"…I'm beginning to get why this universe is fucked." Ron had forced open the entrance to the labyrinth, shooting everything he ran into.

And as they were cutesy candy-based familiars, he vowed personally to blow up whatever was at the center of this place.

"No shit…" Jaden muttered, following him through the bizarre landscape of the labyrinth. "You take us to the most _wonderful_ of places, Ron…"

"I didn't ask for you to come along, Jaden. I was tempted to ask Cassie to beam you back to the ship."

"And I'd beam back down just to spite you, Ron."

"Point taken." The pair continued down the corridor before reaching a large chamber. Where a massive doll sat in a chair.

"That's not fucking creepy." Jaden muttered, shaking his head. "Not at all, totally 100% safe and cuddly-looking… you gonna shoot it first or me?"

"Kill it with fire!" Ron opened fire with his phaser rifle, but the form was durable enough to take phaser pulses from standard rifles.

Thankfully, Jaden had Ron's compression rifle, which had five times the firepower. But before Jaden could lift the rifle, a loud bang was heard, followed by a loud 'TIRO FINALE!'.

"Found her." The two turned as they spotted the aforementioned Magical Girl, as she created her massive cannon and fired at the witch. The doll-like creature collapsed, and something akin to a massive worm with a clown's face and 'wings' emerged from out of the doll, with a sinister smile with razor-sharp teeth - and heading straight towards her.

Mami wanted to move, get out of the way - to keep fighting… but her legs refused to move, looking at the creature wide-eyed. Her previous courage dried up, replaced by nothing but complete and total fear. She was going to die… die alone… no family, no friends…

Her vision went black as the teeth prepared to take off her head, hitting something hard.

"You are FUCKING stupid." Mami opened her eyes, finding Ron holding the jaws open. "If you want to die, shoot yourself."

Mami blinked in confusion before falling unconscious.

"Jaden, get over here! I might be able to hold the jaws open, but I need you to throw in a photon grenade! Set it to maximum yield!"

"Already on it!" Jaden shouted, running forward with a grenade in hand. "OI BITCH! OPEN WIDE!" He leaped up and tossed the Grenade inside the Witch's mouth.

Ron pushed it away, diving to cover Mami's body to shield her from the coming explosion as Charlotte exploded like a popped gory balloon.

"That was fun!" Jaden shouted, grinning despite the gore covering him. The labyrinth faded away.

"No, that was NOT." The captain got off of Mami before standing up, the labyrinth fading away. " _Ra Cailum_ , do you read?"

"We read, boss. Got the girl?"

"If Ryu didn't want her alive, I'd put a round in her head. She better be worth this."

" _Good… though we got bad news._ "

"…they're here?"

" _They just arrived outside the solar system._ "

"Shit. Beam us up."

* * *

Ryu completed the transfer of Mami's soul back into her body before looking at Ron. "So, time for you to leave."

"Yeah, the further we are from your lightshow, the better."

"Shame we couldn't figure out a way to bait them away from Earth," Jaden said, shaking his head. "Give them something juicier than a planet…" However suddenly he paused. "…Hey Ron… could we mimic an Omega signature?"

"Huh?"

"You know… make the Borg _think_ we have an Omega molecule onboard?" He suggested as one final idea before Ryu's lightshow would begin. "I heard they pretty much worship Omega… if they thought we had a stable molecule onboard, wouldn't they chase after us, lure them away from Earth?"

"They'd pick up the wormhole drive's signature if they followed us."

"Plant your trap as far away from your fleet as you can, then." Both looked at Ryu.

"Excuse me?"

"You plant your decoy far enough away that you can jump. I'll handle the Borg. Besides, I owe them for Wolf 359. They killed a friend." Ryu opened a portal before him. "And I intend to return the debt a universe fold."

"Good luck. Just wish we didn't have to push the reset button." Ryu chuckled before walking through the portal, which closed soon after.

Ron let out a breath. "I'll give you the signature to mimic. Plant it in a beacon powerful enough to draw their attention to… Jupiter."

"Got it," Jaden said, stretching his hands. "Just need five minutes!" He ran out the door to head for engineering.

"Pinkerton to bridge: take a route towards the sun. I want a slingshot to get us as far away from Ryu's lightshow as possible before we jump."

Ron knew from sensor readings that whatever Ryu was doing was disrupting subspace. He was sure Ryu wasn't doing it intentionally.

But unless they got at least 5 AU from the bastard, their FTLs were useless.

* * *

 _Energy signature detected. Changing course to intercept._

 _Signature confirmed. Omega-class particle detected. Adjusting power to engines, increasing velocity._

 _Warning: Subspace rifts detected._

The cube shuddered as it came close to the class-6 gas giant's moons, which shattered due to gravitational tides.

 _Lifeform detected. Species designated as Species 5618._

 _Prepare for assimilation._

* * *

Ryu looked at the Borg Cube with a small smirk on his face. "Hello Borg, you and I have come unfinished business," he said to himself as he began gathering his power. " **Heed my words, I am the Sorcerer of the Far Gates, Ryu Hisanaga,** " he declared, magic filling his voice as he began to drain the very moon he was standing on of all of it's magical energy. " **My Role is to combat the Elder Gods, and through my battle with them, they have come to fear me, for I am the Slayer of Immortals, and YOU WILL FEAR MY NAME!** "

He unleashed his opening attack, a magical equivalent to the Tsar Nuke directly against the Borg hull several times over as he began to rise off the rapidly dying moon. " **Come and face your death.** "

The cube attempted to beam him onto the ship and failing that, tractor him on board. That wasn't happening unless he wanted it to. And he wanted to make the Borg bleed. They were a plague, only useful in Ron's universe as a buffer against greater threats.

This wasn't Ron's universe. This was his universe and the borg had NO place in it.

Ryu swatted out with his hand, unleashing a blast of magic that punched straight through the Borg Cube and ended up destroying another moon as the beam of magic cored it. " **I stand at the end of infinity, I witnessed the end of all, you think you can stand against me,** " he questioned as he snapped his finger, causing the cube to begin disintegrating on a molecular level. " **You measure your age in decades, I measure mine in Millenia, you are but a child to me.** "

"We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

That actually amused the sorcerer. The Borg thought they could take him.

"Aww, how _adorable_."

It wasn't going to end well. For the Borg.

* * *

"Uh, the jovian moons are breaking apart!" Riza reported.

"No shit! Full impulse! Get us as far from Ryu as possible!"

"Aye, going to Impulse." The _Ra Cailum_ soared away from Jupiter as the Borg Cube continued to attempt to follow them, as the universe seemed to shatter around them.

"Captain, reality is beginning to collapse: sensor readings are so jumbled—"

"I know what the sensors say, Cassie! KEEP GOING!"

The _Ra Cailum_ and her fleet shot around the sun, the gravitational forces increasing their speed to .8c. While the _Ra Cailum_ could do .94, she had to tow the slower ships: _Galactica_ and her fleet were nowhere NEAR .1 lightspeed at maximum sublight.

"Sir?!"

"Keep going!"

"Hang on to something!" Jaden shouted, as the ship shook, and buckled his seatbelt.

The fleet was soon far enough away from the chaos, but that was not enough. "Subspace is stable, but not for long!"

"Jump to warp! Get us out of here, Riza!"

The swirling motion of light that was entering warp speed was soon replaced by a shaky wormhole ride, which was a rougher ride than any other.

"This is gonna fucking suck, boss!"

"So I noticed, Corpie! ALL HANDS—"

Jaden paled. 'He's not gonna say it, he's not gonna—'

"BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

"OH FUCK THIS WON'T END WELL!" Jaden shouted.

* * *

They were clear.

Ryu turned back to the Borg cube that had given up on trying to assimilate him when over half of the cube had been dissolved and was trying to kill him to little avail. "You will not be here," he informed them as he turned away, the runes lining his cloak lighting up as he began his job. " **By my power, I declare this universe salvageable,** " he announced as he began to reach to the very root of this universe's existence. " **But I so decree, they shall start from the beginning once again… Universal Reset.** "

White light began to wash over the universe at his declaration, washing over every corner of the universe, cleansing it of all of its flaws and bringing everything back to the moment of creation, Ryu vanishing into a portal seconds before it happened, as all of reality exploded in a Big Bang.

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: He's got a point: how many times has the phrase 'all hands brace for impact' ended well? Generations and Timeless ended with the destruction of a starship in both cases.**

 **117Jorn: Fingers crossed that things aren't _too_ bad… **

**Takeshi Yamato: Agreed, though you have to admit something like that tempts Murphy something fierce.**

 **Ruby: Really? (Ron shows vid of _Enterprise_ -D and _Voyager_ crash landings) …Oh. That sucks.**

 **Weiss: At least they survived. …Right?**

 **Blake: Voyager's crew was killed on impact. Came in too fast, plus the IDF was offline. Picture a plane crash, but worse.**

 **Yang: That's bad.**

 **117Jorn: Bracing for Impact is something you _NEVER_ want to hear, girls - trust me.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Yeah, signifies bad stuff, but bracing can save your life!**

 **DKR: I find it fun to do the opposite when someone shouts brace for impact, a few moments of weightlessness followed by a good coma nap… good times.**

 **Ruby: Yeah, I'm gonna… hide.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	41. Chapter 41

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

The wormhole spat them out near a dead star, likely a supernova remnant, which attempted to draw them into the gravity well.

"Riza!"

"FUCK!"

The _Ra Cailum_ pitched up, followed by the rest of the fleet, which had to use their jump drives to get away from the gravity well.

"Fucking hell!" Jaden shouted, "Jumping in right next to a fucking _dead star_! That's a first!"

"I've made slingshots around stars, but this is something to avoid." Ron looked at the sensors readouts on the monitor next to his chair. "It's a supernova remnant. If it weren't for our jump drives, we'd be having issues getting away. Riza, maintain a high attitude, keep us away from the dwarf."

"I'm going to have to keep us close: I'm picking up a large force of ships, all as large or larger than the _Ra Cailum_."

"Just because they're bigger, doesn't mean they're stronger." Jaden pointed out. "So… do we have visuals on them? Let's see what universe we ended up into _this_ time."

"Hang on." The screen activated, showing a ship twice the mass of the _Ra Cailum_ flying past, with a central core and large outriggers, almost like the treads of a WW1 tank, but more… curved.

"If I didn't know any better, Ron, I'd say those ships were Starfleet."

"You're right. That's definitely a Starfleet-style ship." The turbolift doors opened, allowing two former XCOM operatives onto the bridge, who stared at the screen.

"… _Glorious Heritage_ …" The Operative muttered with wide eyes.

"Huh?"

"Those are… _Glorious Heritage_ -class Heavy Cruisers, and _Siege Perilous_ -class Deep Standoff Attack Ships…" the operative muttered. "Holy shit… are we in Andromeda!?"

"…so I'm guessing this is another fictional universe from XCOM?" Jaden asked.

"Yeah! It was created by the same man who created Star Trek actually," The Operative informed, grinning, "Out of all the universes we've visited, this one's probably the closest in terms to tech with Starfleet!"

"They can't be that-"

"They have engine drives that allow them to travel across _galaxies_. _ON PURPOSE._ "

"Really?"

"Slipstream! It's… well, you have to experience it to believe it."

Corpsa ran a tactical scan of each ship. "At least 80 ELS missile tubes, no shields, no complex particle weapons… They wouldn't last five seconds in a fight against a _Constitution_ -Class starship. From the launch date."

And as the _Enterprise_ was the second ship of the class, meaning 2245-era, they were well-armed by their standards. But not by Starfleet's.

"Take detailed scans of each ship. Right down to the hull-bearing structs."

"Sir?"

"When we get back to our universe, I want to see if we can put these ships in production."

"They _do_ look pretty trekkie in design," Jaden said. "Makes sense since Gene Roddenberry was involved in its conception… so where _are_ we though?"

The XCOM operative hummed. "Can we get the names of any of those ships?" he asked. "Look for a ship called the _Wrath of Achilles_."

"Found one. Unique design." Cassie put it on screen, showing a ship roughly hand-shaped, with the 'thumb' curving inwards towards the other 'fingers', the core 'palm' being thin and flat with a forward command section. "Fuck me. That's a warship."

"They're ALL warships. But that thing is a predator." Corpsa looked over a short range scan of the warship. "Armament includes one hundred and eighty ELS missile tubes, twenty four PDL turrets, four AP Cannons, thirty two Janus attack drones with a defensive system based on six radiating countermeasure generators and thin blade-like constructions."

"If that thing had shields, phasers and photon torpedoes, I would be worried to see it."

"Then if that's the _Wrath of Achilles_ , that means this is the Tartarus System, and those are the 50 Commonwealth ships the Nietzscheans of Drago-Kazov pride have captured, but haven't been able to delete their AI's yet." the Operative informed.

"What's a Nietzschean?"

"Remember… KHAAAAAAAAAAAN?!"

"KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" Ron shouted, before nodding. "Yes I do…. Why?"

"Well, imagine an entire civilization made up of people like him, only give them blades on their wrists, and the ability to genetically reincarnate."

"That's rare. One of my classmates at Starfleet Academy looked like Joseph Stalin."

"Yeah, they've been waiting for the reincarnation of Drago Museveni for over 2000 years."

The sensor post began to beep out warnings. "Subspace disruption, edge of the system." A small portal spat out a tiny cargo ship, looking like a piece of shit compared to the high guard beauties.

"That had to be slipstream."

The two XCOM people stared at the little piece of shit ship. "Fuck me, that's the _Eureka Maru_."

"Which is…?"

"A ship owned by Beka Valentine, crewman of the series's equivalent to the _Enterprise_ : the High Guard starship _Andromeda Ascendant,_ " he explained. "Meaning… we're right in the middle of Episode 20 of Season 2: The Knight, Death and the Devil, where Dylan Hunt tries to recover the Commonwealth ships here to add them to the growing New Commonwealth fleet."

"We can't let them see us."

"And they can't afford to lose any of those ships, Captain: they need them intact and operational, especially the _Achilles_."

Ron hmmed. "Team RWBY, report to transporter room 1 and bring along a MACO combat engineering team. We're sending you over to a derelict ship."

 _"You got it, Cap!"_

Ron sat back in his chair, inching his growing beard. "One thing I don't miss about the Borg is the lack of facial hair. Jaden, I want you to prep another team of engineers and try to keep Sonja out of it: she's what, 4 months pregnant now?"

"Right, though I make no promises." Jaden said with a chuckle, "You know as well as I do she's… kinda stubborn."

"I can override the transporter to lock her out until she's babyless."

"And she'd override that."

* * *

The _Wrath of Achilles_ was a wreck.

But the team from the _Ra Cailum_ already knew that as they beamed in, looking over the corridors. "Carbon scoring is consistent with plasma bolts and small railgun rounds." Jaden mused. "This ship took one hell of a beating."

"And yet he refuses to die," Jaden nodded, patting the hull. "Alright, let's work on fixing this bad boy… first stop, engineering: let's see that exotic matter pulsar slipstream core and work some magic…"

Blake pulled out a phaser rifle, having given Gambol Shroud to Sonja for major upgrading, scouting down the hall. "No signs of life. But that doesn't mean the AI hasn't seen us."

"You think we beamed into a section he's blind to?"

Alarms began going off.

"Nope."

" _Security systems have been compromised, but I can still decompress the section you are in. Identify yourselves_."

"Commander Jaden Takeo, of the United Federation of Planets Starfleet," He informed. "Calm down, we're here to fix your shit _Achilles_."

" _I do not recognize a United Federation of Planets. Venting will begin in 20 seconds._ "

"He doesn't want to listen." Blake sighed. "Good thing I learned how to do this."

She extended her tubules, but Jaden stopped her. "Bad idea: this ship's got nanobots, too."

"Borg technology is far worse then Commonwealth nanobots, Commander."

"Just trying to be cautious since, you know… you're not Mr. Overpowered back on the _Ra Cailum_." He pointed out. "Your girlfriend would kill me if anything happened to you on my watch."

"Noted." She stuck them into a circuit router, groaning before she had control of the atmospheric controls. "There. Got it. _Achilles_ can't vent the air any time soon: I forced the systems into a diagnostic mode."

Footsteps were heard down the corridors, making Jaden groan. "How's your personal shield generator?"

"Same standards as everyone else: I'm not an engineer."

"Good - don't fire unless fired upon." He informed, switching his shields on to max setting. "And let's all try to be _diplomatic_."

Soon enough, a man in a relaxed uniform holding a stick-like weapon entered the junction, pointing it at them. "You know, I don't know who you guys are or how you got on this ship, but this is a commonwealth High Guard vessel. So I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"You must be Captain Hunt." The man kept his weapon trained on Jaden before Blake entered his line of sight.

"Hands where I can see them."

"Captain, we came on board to help repair this ship for you, not to steal it. Because, this ship is a piece of shit compared to ours." Jaden gave Blake a dirty look. "Superdreadnought compared to this, Commander."

"I know you're right, but _please_ be respectful of potential allies, Blake." Jaden muttered, looking at Dylan. "Look Captain, we're here to _help_ you, now let us do our job of fixing these ships before our CO comes over. Trust me, you won't like him when he's angry."

"Sounds like you're working for a Nietzschean."

"Well, he demands the best and he gets it."

" _Definitely_ sounds like a Nietzschean."

* * *

Ron was not happy. But he had to go over there because Starfleet regulations were a bitch. The commanding officer had to serve as diplomat.

Ron was no diplomat. He was a construction worker and a soldier. Sadly, he couldn't send Wang Liu Mei over there, because she was bored out of her mind with other tasks she had to handle, meaning it had to be him.

"Beam me over."

"Energizing…" A few moments passed, and the next thing Ron noticed he was within the corridors of a new vessel.

"I don't-" He heard someone say, before everyone in the room "What-where did he come from?!"

"Quantum teleportation's a bitch. Surprise, assholes."

Jaden facepalmed. He was trolling.

"I presume you are the leader of these… children?"

Ron looked at the man the files identified as Tyr Anasazi. "Children that can disembowel you in five seconds."

"I could say the same for a Nietzschean child."

RWBY watched as the two began a discourse before Ruby screamed. "There's two of them… THERE'S TWO OF THEM!"

"…there _is_ a weird resemblance…" Jaden muttered, glancing between the two as they argued.

Sure, the two looked nothing alike (Ron was caucasian, Tyr African-American, one had a bit of weight on him, the other was pure muscle) but the way they talked, their retorts…

Ruby was right: there WERE two of them. And it was kinda scary.

"Well, two Nietzscheans from two different prides just talking instead of knifing each other. That's new in this day and age."

Ron glared at Dylan. "I'm human. A little fucked over thanks to a certain group of assholes, but human."

"No… you are Nietzschean," Tyr said, looking at Ron. "There is… degradation from the genes of humans, but I can tell one of my people apart from others."

"Look buddy, Ron is _human_ , I can guarantee it," Jaden said. "There's no way he could be one of you."

"There is one way to prove it." Tyr punched Ron in the face, knocking the captain down. Tyr winced in pain. "Reinforced skull."

"Tritanium. Everyone get out of here. I want no witnesses." RWBY fled from the scene. They knew better.

* * *

"You didn't have to carry me. Besides, what could he do?" Dylan protested as Jaden set him down, laughing despite himself.

"Ron's punches can cause minor earthquakes: trust me, I've seen it done when he punched an alien into the ground."

Granted, it was barely .2 on the Richter scale, but that was enough.

"That's imposs-" Suddenly the entire ship rattled. "The hell was that? Are we under-"

"Nope, that was Ron." Jaden informed sighing. "Hope you got good medical gear, because your friend's probably gonna get _fucked_ by Ron."

"That's… unexpected."

"He was enhanced by a race we call the Borg. They mutilated him, but he got the best shit from them, too." Another rattle caused them to worry. "Look, I know it's probably against some rule, but while Ron is busy, we can have you talk to an ambassador of ours. Frankly, she's been bored out of her mind: she doesn't get to do her job often as everyone's usually trying to kill us."

"That would… be appreciated, actually." Dylan said, "Though we kinda need to deal with our _current_ issue regarding the fleet."

"Don't worry, we'll have our engineers repair all the ships and rearm them too," Jaden informed. "Trust me captain Hunt, you are about to meet your biggest ally."

The ship shook again. "If your captain doesn't destroy the ship, first."

* * *

Ron had enough of fighting Tyr. Mostly because it was like he was fighting himself.

Tyr had his bone blades, sure, but they weren't hurting him. "Ok, we're done."

"Really? I would think you want to prove yourself."

Ron shook his head. "You are not something to test against. I'm faster and stronger: I have to hold back because really, I don't want to kill you. Too much of a waste as Hunt needs you."

Tyr simply scoffed. "You fight well," he said. "Unrefined, but your Nietzschean blood guides you..."

"I'm _not_ Nietzschean." Ron countered. "It's _impossible_."

"Every Nietzschean knows instinctively how to fight, but the technique is refined by the parents teaching them. You were never taught; you had to fill in the blanks. You did well." Tyr coughed up blood.

"Well enough to kick your ass."

* * *

Back on command, Dylan took in a breath as he tried to comprehend their story.

They were from an alternate universe, had been jumping from universe to universe for almost two years and had narrowly escaped the destruction of the last one before arriving here. "That is… a lot to take in," he stated.

"Trust me, I know the feeling," Mei informed with a smile, "It was hard to believe there was _one_ alternate reality… now I've been with these people jumping from place to place."

"And this Federation seems a lot like the Commonwealth. At least I'd have a friend somewhere in the galaxy that isn't interested in using me for their own self-gain."

"Well… half-true. Ron wants the blueprints for your fleet."

And Dylan deflated. "He wants classified materials for Commonwealth starships. That's not happening."

"Captain, our sensor technology outstrips yours in almost every way," Mei said. "A deep scan would give us everything we need to know about this fleet, but we decided to help you instead. We're not going to war against you. Besides, Blake put it not so nicely: your ships are out of date compared to the _Ra Cailum_."

"She's right," Jaden informed. "We want to help you, captain. You help us with this, and you can gain access to technology that dwarfs what anyone else in the galaxy has. Deflector shields, teleportation, replication of food and materials, a new source of energy… all of which would make your already existing ships, five times more deadly."

He thought about it until Tyr was thrown onto the deck, followed by Ron. "It was fun until the bastard kept trying his luck."

"Seriously? I thought you'd kill him."

"I was tempted, then I remembered that Hunt still needs him."

Jaden huffed. Ron was annoyed about that. Tyr might've pushed buttons that no one pushed for sake of not dying.

"He keeps insisting I'm Nietzschean. For fuck's sake, I came from another universe entirely and genetic engineering is banned: it would be impossible for me to be one."

At this point, swirling columns of light heralded the arrival of the _Ra Cailum_ 's engineering teams. Matt came up to Ron and stood at attention. "Ready to get to work on your orders, boss," he said.

"Captain Hunt?" Well, he wanted the ships operational. And if they could rearm the _Achilles_ , the Dragan task force that would come would get slaughtered.

"All yours."

* * *

 **USS _Firestorm_**

* * *

"Flying missile platforms. Could be worse."

Takeshi nodded. "Yeah, guess they never really got the hang of energy weapons in this universe - from what the XCOM people told us about Andromeda, they always used either missiles or projectiles."

"Well, they've got limited experience with AP weapons, so—" A proximity alarm went off as they picked up a ship entering the system. "Well, this could be bad: a heavy fighter and a troopship. Should we blow it up?"

"Let's call it in and make sure, first," Takeshi replied. " _Firestorm_ to Pinkerton. Ron, a heavy fighter and a troopship just entered the system. Orders?"

" _Where are they heading_?"

"Their course is straight for the _Achilles_. Ron, I could take them out—"

" _Don't bother. Let them dock and once they try to escape, waste them. We'll take care of them on the ship."_

"Ron, there's a full company of troops on that shuttle."

" ** _Excellent_**." Ron's unholy cackle was enough to make them relax.

It was business as usual.

"Understood," Takeshi replied.

It seemed Ron was spoiling for a fight.

* * *

"We've got an hour before that troopship docks."

"You could blow it out of the sky, Captain. Your children are too lightly armed and your engineers aren't combat trained."

"You would be surprised, Anasazi: I trained them myself. They could kill you blindfolded with their wrists and ankles bound together."

Tyr paused as he looked at Ron. "You are being serious?"

"I'm always serious when it comes to things trying to kill my people. If you don't believe me…"

Tyr didn't even have time to _blink_ before a shower of rose petals surrounded him and he was forced to the ground, handcuffed.

Ruby stood over him, grinning.

"How—"

"Weird shit follows my ship."

Tyr thought about it for a moment. If he was defeated so easily (as a Kodiak, they were the best at hand to hand combat, being the guardians of the progenitor's remains) He wasn't sure what to feel.

Pity for the Drago-Kazov or joy that a bit of genetic cleansing was about to happen.

"Alright, people, we got an hour before the assholes show up: try and get automated defenses back online. If you can't, simply funnel them towards me. I'll take care of everything."

As Ruby uncuffed him, Tyr could not doubt that.

* * *

 **117Jorn: On the starship _Andromeda_ , hope lives again!**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Ah, yes, Andromeda. In the original, this was where circumstances basically caused me to lose interest. It's not that I dislike Andromeda, but some items were handled improperly, mostly involving Ron, and I couldn't really see how to fix them without scrapping everything and starting over. Hopefully this time that doesn't happen.**

 **Ron the True Fan: At least we've gotten to this point again. Took over two months, but it got done.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: And we've come out all the better. I'm happy to be apart of it this time around.**

 **Ruby: So...what's gonna happen?**

 **Ron the True Fan: (Sings Hall of the Mountain King set to the word 'rape')**

 **117Jorn: As usual… nothing but Rape…**

 **Ja Ne!**


	42. Chapter 42

**USS _Firestorm_**

* * *

Takeshi continued to watch as the troopship and fighter approached Ron's position. Part of him still wanted to take them out, but Ron wanted a fight, so he'd let him have one.

Well, his orders were take out the fighter and make sure the troopship was empty before blowing them to hell, so he was going to blow them to hell after they boarded the _Achilles_.

A fitting name: the ship's Achilles heel was her lack of anti-fighter defense. It was why the Commonwealth never replaced the _Glorious Heritage_ -Class with more of them. It was a similar ratio to the F-15 Eagle and F-16 fighting Falcon: one GH for three DSX-class attack ships.

He'd wait until the troopship docked before attacking, though - take out the fighter in a surprise attack, and the troopship would likely bolt.

If they waited until the troops were disgorged, the troopship bolting would leave them stranded.

And leave them on the same ship with the most terrifying thing in the known multiverse.

Ron when he's in a killing mood.

* * *

 ** _Wrath of Achilles_**

* * *

While the internal defenses were inactive, they DID have a plan: funnel the bastards towards a single access point to command, where Ron would be waiting for them.

And Dylan remembered what Tyr said: the man took everything he had to offer and _still_ kicked his ass.

"They are gonna get _so_ fucked." Jaden said with a chuckle. "Might as well bring up some popcorn and prepare for the show!"

"Really. This isn't a game."

"Our job, captain, is to funnel them towards the walking, talking apocalypse. After that, we can just watch the show. Hey, Cassie, mind beaming over some popcorn?"

" _Depends. What kind? We've got 500 different brands and flavors._ "

"Just regular please, with butter." He said, holding his hand out - as Cassie beamed over an extra-large bucket filled with buttered popcorn. "I fucking _love_ that A.I."

The door was soon forced open, with armored Drago-Kazov troops rushing on board. Jaden threw a handful of popcorn into his mouth before firing his phaser rifle one handed at them, taking down two of them before they just looked at Jaden eating the popcorn.

That was a mistake as they soon ran into a far more… simple soul.

There was a loud feminine scream as they turned around… and suddenly one of the Drago soldiers was missing half of his body as Ruby Rose sliced him in half, swinging Crescent Rose around before batting a second soldier against the wall.

Another ducked into a corridor, which resulted in having a blade shoved into his neck, pinning him to a bulkhead before decapitating him. The squad froze when they saw Weiss Schnee, blade in hand as the body fell to the deck.

Fear forced them to run down a ramp before one of the stragglers was lifted into a vent by a black ribbon wrapping around his neck, choking him to death as he was pulled in, much like the horror movies of 21st century Earth.

Another soldier tried to run into yet another corridor, his hand reaching out to try and force the door open, before it opened itself-

 _RIIIIP_

He blinked as he looked at his hand as it had several locks of golden-colored hair… why was it suddenly getting so hot?

A gauntlet-covered fist slammed into his face, taking his head off, which slammed into another Drago, taking off _his_ head., with the first Drago's head replacing the second's.

"Shouldn't've done that." The idiots looked at a black-haired woman holding a ribbon in her hands, who they didn't even hear walking on the decks before they spotted the angry Yang Xiao Long. "She hates it when people ruin her hair."

* * *

Screaming was heard as Tyr watched them run from Yang, most of them screaming like women.

Sexist that may be, but it was rather accurate for Nietzscheans.

"Perhaps we should avoid them at all costs."

"For once, we are in total agreement." Both Rommie and Tyr backed away from the corridor as RWBY chased after the Dragans.

* * *

Dylan looked at Jaden, still wolfing down popcorn. "So, where did you find those girls?"

"Planet called Remnant, different universe." He answered, mouth full as he kicked back into a chair. "People have magical-like abilities through crystals called Dust, and can manifest their souls to do superhuman feats and abilities like Yang's indestructibility, Blake's shadows, Ruby's speed and Weiss's Glyphs."

"…Shit."

"Yeah, maybe you'll find their world here one day."

"I'm more worried about the Magog, Commander. Come on, we have to get to Command."

"I'm not moving one inch." Jaden said a he stuffed another handful into his mouth. "Ron's got it WELL in hand."

* * *

The squad stopped to catch their breath, glancing back to see if those… freaks were still following them. They had stopped for some reason.

"Welcome."

The squad snapped towards the pilot's chair, and they watched as it turned around to reveal a fat man, hands templed like a criminal mastermind and smiling evily.

The Nietzscheans almost laughed at the sight before them, after all, one fat human was nothing compared to those _demons_ behind them.

We don't need to tell you they were wrong.

Ron stood up, strode over and broke the leader's femur with a single kick. The man went down screaming.

And a femur is one of the strongest bones in the body. And this is a Nietzschean.

"See, this is what you get for forgetting the first rule of the book." He drew his kilij, shouldering the weapon.

"Never judge a book by its' cover."

* * *

Dylan and Jaden rushed to command (well, Dylan ran, Jaden devoured his popcorn on a sedate walk) finding Ron finishing the job, snapping the neck of the last squaddie.

"About time. These people were no fun to fight: I mean, I know it's my job to kill them quickly, but I would like to at least get SOME enjoyment out of my bouts."

"I got enjoyment!" Jaden said, calmly walking inside, munching away. "Good- _nom_ \- work- _nomnom-_ Captain!"

Tyr peeked in from the other entrance, comfortably walking in as soon as he confirmed the dead squad. "Quickly killed, no pain. A very Nietzschean approach."

"Goddamn it, Anasazi, he's human! He doesn't have the bone blades!"

"They can be removed. I've seen many cases of it for spies."

"He was assimilated by the Borg: they value speed over anything else! And while he hates them—"

"Gentlemen." Mercenary and MS pilot looked at Ron, who pulled out a knife and cut his hand open, drawing blood.

"Ron, that won't do anything."

"It only happens with Starfleet computers. Test it here or on the _Maru_. I'm going back to the _Ra Cailum_. And tell Rutia to beam over." He ordered, grabbing a handful of popcorn with his uninjured hand as he passed.

"Huh, makes sense." Jaden said, grabbing the knife. "Wait, what about your nanoprobes?"

Ron kept walking. "I'm in full control of those nanoprobes, just don't swallow it or get it in your eyes!"

Jaden shrugged, keeping the blade at arm's length. "Alright, let's get this settled for Ron and Riza once and for all."

* * *

"A DNA test?"

 _"Since the computers on the_ Ra Cailum _keep fucking you over, we'll do it on the_ Achilles _: their facilities are still intact_."

Rutia packed up a medical kit, threw on her blue coat and looked at her assistant. "Flay, I want you to keep an eye on things while I'm gone."

Flay had _just_ enough control to keep her eyes from widening. This was bad, this was very bad. "Yes, ma'am," she said, surprised her voice didn't crack.

This couldn't happen. They couldn't find out. Flay waited until Rutia was out of sickbay and down the hall before rushing out, heading towards the closest transporter room.

The room was surprisingly deserted - shift change, perhaps. Still, this worked out just fine for her. She input her personal override code into the transporters, knowing they'd be accepted due to her… unique employment status… then set the coordinates for the _Achilles_ ' computer core area and triggering the delayed transport timer. She then stepped onto the pad and prepared to hide Ron's secret once again.

She expected to be there and beam out.

She didn't expect to materialize in the brig, Team CFVY and Zeta Squad pointing their weapons at her as the forcefield went up.

"…Fuck!" Well, THAT backfired.

The doors to the brig opened, the smug face of Corpsa zh'Kilon being what marched in. "Well, we've been looking for whoever's been fucking with the computers. I didn't expect it to be YOU."

"This is a mistake! I didn't—"

"Oh, cut the bullshit. Three minutes after we get told there's a DNA test on the captain on another ship, you rush to the transporter room."

Flay sighed. Busted by her urgency. "Alright, fine," she said. "I was the one who set up the issues with the Pinkerton's DNA testings. But it was for the good of the Federation."

"That's a line we've heard before. You're with Section 31."

"Well, you've got me in the cell, so why bother denying it. I'm with Section 31. I'm supposed to keep you from knowing what you're not supposed to know. Mainly, the captain's grandparents and where they came from."

"What the hell's so important about them?"

"Because they're not from our universe," Flay replied. "They just appeared out of a subspace rift—what laypeople might refer to as a 'swirling hole in reality'—right into Starfleet Command around four years before the Khitomer conference."

That was over 120 years ago!

And according to the birth records, Ayame was born barely four years before the death of her parents, who were crewed on the _Enterprise_ -C.

"You're shitting me."

"No. They had a love-hate relationship before they were kicked onto the _Enterprise_ -C. Then it turned to love and you know the result." The result being Ayame Pinkerton.

"Anyway, testing had showed results that weren't normal, and could not be revealed to _anyone_ under any circumstances. This is why every ship crewed by them, Ayame, and her children has had a Section-31 Agent aboard, to keep people from discovering their secrets. The only people who even know _part_ of the truth are the highest-ranking officers at Starfleet Command, and the agents assigned to the duty of keeping it secret."

"Why? What's the point?"

* * *

The point was quickly discovered. With Flay out of the way, Rutia finally completed the analysis in a speedy fashion. Jaden stared at the DNA strands on the damaged, but functioning, screen. "Would you mind explaining half this shit to me? I'm not Ron. Or Blake."

"I'm not too confident on this either," Blake admitted, "but some of these genetic markers… don't look natural."

"They aren't. Those are markers for increasing bone density without increasing weight. And those are for increasing eyesight, removing astigmatism, boosted immune system...This is augment DNA, but taken to a greater degree."

"Wow," Jaden said. "Well… just another bit of _Ra Cailum_ crazy, right?"

He laughed as much as he could.

He was joined in laughter by all but one member of Team RWBY. Blake didn't laugh, but she was Blake.

The most damning one was Rutia. When she didn't laugh, Jaden started to get worried.

"You're not laughing. Please tell me that's just your sense of humor." He begged.

"It's not."

"This… I take it this _isn't_ typical _Ra Cailum_ crazy?"

"No. Federation law is very strict about genetic engineering. Unless it's to correct degenerative diseases, it's illegal. They aren't even allowed into Starfleet if they're caught. There are no exceptions to the screening: even Julian Bashir barely got out of a situation with his commission when he was found out, the only reason he kept it being that he didn't want his DNA resequenced. His parents forced it on him and he resented them for decades for it!"

"Wow…" Jaden replied. "That… that seems a bit extreme…"

"He didn't ask for it. And now we have a problem."

"What problem?"

"He bends the rules to get things done, but he does NOT break them. Ron follows Federation law to the point where he knows it better than most pre-war Cardassians knew their own. The second he's informed, shit will hit the fan."

"But… but he wasn't modified," Jaden said, grasping at the one straw he had left here. "If the _Andromeda's_ crew is right about this, it's his grandparents, or maybe even their distant ancestors, who got modified!"

"That reminds me, his grandparents are former _Andromeda_ crewmen: they disappeared during the Battle of Hephestaus. A Wilhelmina Gladys and Peter Orson. Huh. Same pride as Tyr. Kodiak. Still, best be prepared if Ron cites Federation law."

"But he's not genetically modded! His _ancestors_ were!" Jaden retorted. "This is complete and utter bullshit!"

"It might not be enough to keep him from doing something _stupid_." Sonja said, shaking her head.

* * *

"In ideal circumstances, I would be resigning my commission here and now." Both of the engineers glanced at one another.

Ron sat in his ready room, both of them standing in front of his desk as they waited for him to take off his pips.

"Unfortunately, these are NOT ideal circumstances."

"Oh thank fuck…" Jaden muttered. "The last thing we need is _that_ …"

"Don't get comfortable. The moment we make contact with Starfleet Command, I WILL be bringing this up."

"Oh, COME ON!"

"My father was a JAG, Jaden, and while he wasn't around often, he was around enough to instill the fact that the law is inviolable! NO ONE is excused from it or above it. Not even me. Section 31 can kiss my ass and to be frank, so can the lot of you for thinking I can be above the law!"

"You. Were. Not. Modded!" Jaden exclaimed, "Your _grandparents_ were! For fuck's sake Ron are you gonna throw away your career over a fucking _technicality_?!"

"You can be surprised how many things can be made or broken over a mere _fucking technicality_. **_Dismissed_**." Jaden glared at Ron, but he knew that tone.

It was the 'leave or I forget who you are' tone. So he and Sonja left his ready room, Ron looking at a PADD as the doors shut.

"This is bullshit." Jaden muttered.

"You think? I hate to say it, but I've seen him tear people apart legally using technicalities and loopholes. It wasn't pretty. Besides, count our blessings: until we make contact with Starfleet Command, he's got the uniform and command of the fleet. And we can delay any work on that as long as possible until someone kicks him in the balls hard enough to stop thinking about resigning."

Jaden just groaned, palming his face. "Of all the things you outlaw, why oh why did it have to be _genetic mods_ …"

"Because of people like Khan." She paused, waiting. "…fucking hell he's not even screaming his name…"

"So what, you have a bunch of gene-modded Warlords from _centuries_ ago, and that's enough reasoning to ban it all?!" Jaden shouted. "What about Nena, hm? She's technically a modded human, so should she give up on her dream of being Starfleet? What about the Innovades onboard _Morningstar_ , or the Gene-Modded personnel from XCOM!"

"Because the Innovades and Nena technically aren't human and the XCOM personnel can have their gene mods taken out. Ron's are built in, part of his base genome, like the Trans-Am system is built into a true GN drive. Besides, we have some time before we have to worry about Ron resigning his commission. Thank God for the Voyager Contingency."

Jaden paused. "Voyager Contingency?"

"It's a Starfleet emergency protocol that reactivates any inactive commission or allows one to be given a battlefield commission in Starfleet. So far, we've basically been operating under it. You can guess who it's named for."

"USS _Voyager_ from ST Voyager," Jaden said sighing. "This is just… it's still only a temporary solution…"

"A temporary solution buys us time to find a permanent one." He couldn't argue with THAT logic.

The tactical console began beeping like mad. "Subspace distortions going off like mad! A fleet of warships just came out of slipstream: all Nietzschean in design! Looks like we're in for a shitstorm."

A lightly armed and armored shitstorm, but those ships still outnumbered the _Ra Cailum_ and her military fleet 5 to 1.

The doors to the ready room opened, Ron coming out, missing his outer uniform jacket, going with the turtleneck and vest. "Report."

"…the usual stick," Jaden said, lightly glaring at Ron. "Shitton of people who hate our guts here, outnumbering us five-to-one."

"Stand to battle stations. Inform all military ships to prepare for combat. I'm not leaving the Commonwealth fleet behind. Inform the usual defenders to jump with the civilians out of the system. Takeshi, I want you on hit and run duty. Bleed them."

"Understood, Boss," Takeshi replied, beaming over to the _Firestorm_. Luna's pregnancy was far enough along by this point that she was basically on maternity leave, so she was staying in their quarters.

"Jaden, prepare the Mobile Suit teams for combat." Jaden refused to move one micron from his spot. Ron looked at him angrily. "We can discuss your dislike of Federation law AFTER the fleet is made safe, Commander. Until then, we have a job to do and we have contact with Starfleet Command and I'm told by Admiral Quinn, the Council and the President, I am still in command."

"…yes sir," Jaden said, giving him a mocking salute before he turned to leave.

"I… think that's the first time he _hasn't_ referred to you by name…" Sonja muttered.

"He can deal with it. I'm not happy about it, either, but if I suddenly put myself above the law, what the hell does that mean for everyone else?"

* * *

Jaden slammed his fist into the bulkhead.

Pigheaded, stubborn, insane fucking BASTARD! 'Unfortunately, these aren't ideal circumstances'.

If they were back in his universe, Ron would've hung up his uniform already! All the bending, all the technicalities he had done, yet this: THIS was the point he drew the fucking line at?

This was bullshit! Sure, the law was important, but this?!

This was stupid! But Jaden didn't know ALL of the law, Ron probably had more knowledge, but really, this was stupid!

"Jaden!" The engineer looked at his nominal XO, who looked worried. "We're on alert status one. And why are you so pissed off-looking?"

"Twilight, I do _not_ have fucking time for shit right now!" Jaden growled, causing his XO to flinch slightly. "I need to go out there and vent some rage because the Captain's being a FUCKING MORON!" He marched past her as he headed towards the hangar bay.

It wasn't much, but maybe thinning the Drago-Kazov gene pool would help.

Jaden made it to the Gundam Mk II, climbing into the cockpit before it was raised to the catapult. "Catapult online: mass driver charged. Launch time is at your command, Jaden." He pushed the control yolks forward, too angry to announce that he was launching.

It was time to get to killing.

* * *

A swarm of Garuda fighters sped towards the fleet, intent on striking first blood to the ones who denied them their price… before suddenly, the first wave of Garuda's inexplicably exploded.

" _Wha-where did-_ " Another Garuda was sliced in half, as the Gundam Mk-II _soared_ forward, leaving behind a trail of GN particles and blood as he flew in Trans-Am, mercilessly destroying the fighters.

A MAD Jaden was not something anyone wanted to face. Even Ron wouldn't want to face that shit.

He was just lucky that Jaden decided to vent on the Drago-Kazov as two cruisers became his next targets.

If he couldn't beat Ron senseless, he WOULD make the Drago-Kazov bleed.

* * *

"Well, he's mad. That's two-wait, no, three cruisers."

"The fuck do you expect, _Captain_? You outright said you would resign if we were back home!"

Ron glanced over his shoulder, looking at Sonja. "Watch your tone, _Commander_."

"Yes Captain Jackass _Sir,_ " Sonja muttered, looking back at her console.

"Come about, target the lead vessel and draw the fighters to us. Get some of the heat off of Jaden."

"I think he wants it, sir." Corpsa muttered.

"Corpsa, I don't care if he wants it or not: I will not be down a pilot simply because he's being fucking emotional."

"And you aren't?"

"Watch it, Henderson."

Corpsa sighed, none of the crew were liking this at all.

Ron glowered at the screen.

They didn't understand.

They never could.

* * *

After 30 fighters, Jaden began to get more and more frustrated with the Drago-Kazov, making his disposition worse.

Mobile Suits were superior craft in terms of agility, but simpler fighters would never be replaced due to their ease of construction. And this proved it as the Garudas just kept coming.

Quantity was a quality all its' own, as Stalin used to say.

But unfortunately, the Gundam Mk-II was piloted by a very, _very_ pissed off pilot who didn't give a shit about quantity at the moment, as he literally ripped a Garuda in half with its bare hands. "I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR BULLSHIT!" He roared out.

The Gundam fired on the unprotected ships before a phaser sweep tore apart several other ships, the origin point being the _Ra Cailum's_ dorsal phaser array. "I do NOT need any help!"

" _Shove your useless emotional bias aside and look at this logically! You are being overwhelmed: the only solution is to give you support. Bitch later._ Maru _, get the fleet out of here. We'll talk with the AIs once we're out of this godforsaken star system._ "

" _Fuck you, you goddamned QUITTER!_ " Jaden shouted, jumping atop a Battlecruiser and firing a GN Bazooka into it, coring the vessel and annihilating it before moving on to the next target.

* * *

Above the fleet and outside their detection range was a starship much older than the _Ra Cailum_ , at 47 years old. Very few starships got to be that age.

But the USS _Damascus_ was one of the best ships in the Federation Starfleet for a reason. That being her captain and experienced crew.

"Looks like my son's gotten himself into some deep shit. That's what, over 600 starships?"

"Looks like it… and dwindling," The sensor operator informed, "589… 587… 571… "

"Well, hail the _Hargrove_ and tell them to use their big fucking gun. And bring us in, full impulse power. Red alert! All hands, stand to battle stations!"

* * *

Jaden hacked another ship in half before another battlecruiser-and then the one relative _under_ it- was suddenly cored by a phaser beam that didn't belong to the _Ra Cailum_.

It was denser, brighter...

More powerful.

"Da fuck?" Jaden asked, looking around for the source "Where the hell did that-" he followed the source of the beam, and blinked as he spotted was looked like a _Galaxy_ -class with an added Nacelle. Jaden knew this class, that was a _Devron_ -class Dreadnought. A Starfleet vessel. "The hell did _that_ come from?!"

The ship fired her spinal-mounted phaser cannon (called the lance for...clear reasons) at the next ship before another ship decloaked, being a _Galaxy_ -Class starship, same as the _Enterprise_ -D. But the number was much _higher_ registry: NCC-71249, with the name being USS _Damascus_. The _Damascus_ opened fire with everything it had, phasers crippling or destroying their targets in a brilliant lightshow.

" _Ra Cailum_ , are you seeing this shit?"

* * *

"We are, we're just having a hard time believing it."

Sonja just watched as the _Damascus_ opened fire on the Drago-Kazov fleet. Anyone else in the fleet would be overjoyed that they finally had contact from their own universe. But not the crew of the _Ra Cailum_. It only meant Ron's resignation just got pushed forward.

"We're being hailed by the _Damascus_." Ron simply dropped in the chair. Cassie opened a channel to the older starship.

" _Hoi, Ron! Nice to find you!_ " The captain remained silent. " _What, not happy to hear from your mother? What's the matter with you?_ "

"...Hi, mom."

 _"The fuck is YOUR problem? You sound depressed."_

"I'll let the others explain."

* * *

Jaden blinked. "I'm sorry, did I hear 'mom'?"

" _Yup, that was his mother, the second-scariest bitch in Starfleet: Ayame Virgillia Wilhelmina Pinkerton_."

"...Does EVERY member of that family have overly long full names?" he asked. "Hate to hear what his father's name was!"

 _"It gets worse: they brought more ships. Two of them even have ADMIRALS on board."_

"Ah, FUCK!" That meant they ran out of time.

And it meant they were down a captain.

* * *

 **117Jorn: Well… Shit.**

 **Ron the True Fan: It can only get worse.**

 **Ruby: HOW Can it get worse?!**

 **Yang: I _really_ don't wanna know… **

**Blake: I have some idea, all relating to his rather… bleak backstory.**

 **Weiss: Bleak? …Oh.**

 **117Jorn: Next chapter is gonna be… different…**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Yeah… even the best ain't invincible. As much as we want them to be.**

 **Ron the True Fan: We're only human, enhanced or not.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	43. Chapter 43

**USS _Damascus_**

* * *

The fleet had all linked up, the Drago-Kazov had been...eliminated, and now they had a problem to deal with.

That being Ron's refusal to remain in Starfleet due to his genetic status.

Hence why Jaden was preparing a long-winded and very angry speech to the senior captains in the 'reinforcement' fleet.

' _She can be the supreme commander of all of fucking Starfleet,_ ' he thought angrily as he headed for the ready room where the Admiral waited. ' _If she lets Ron get the fucking boot, I'm gonna kick her ass._ '

The doors to the ready room opened, with a near-clone of Riza sitting behind a very Spartan desk, with only a monitor to occupy it as well as a few PADDs. Like mother, like son, apparently: Ron's ready room was just as barren. "Commander Jaden Takeo, I presume. I've heard you have issues with my son. All of them related to certain attractions."

"Oh, fuck's sake, I'm not here for that! And how the hell do you know about that?"

"My son gave the Tholians ALL of the log entries. You feature _prominently_ in his personnel reports."

Jaden's eye twitched. "Fucking troll…" he muttered. "Look Miss Pinkerton, we've got an issue and it needs to be taken care of as soon as fucking possible."

Ayame rose her brow. "And that being?"

"Ron's said once a superior officer showed up from Starfleet, he'll resign his commission from Starfleet."

"And?"

"He's the best man for the job: we can't let him-"

"Relax. Section 31 said that if our legacy, as it were, was discovered, our family would be given a free pass."

Jaden was about to continue, before he blinked. "Wait… you _know_?" He asked incredulously. "But… you just got here, and we only _just_ learned this!"

"One of the personnel on my ship is a Section 31 agent: he informed me of the situation the moment he was contacted by your ship's VI. But that's not the problem."

"There is no problem: Ron's staying in command of his ship."

"There is a problem: guilt." Jaden tilted his head to the left slightly in confusion. "Huh?"

"Are you familiar with how my son was freed from the Collective?"

"Sonja told me he was rescued during some battle a few years ago," He answered, "He seemed sensitive on the subject so I never asked for specifics."

Ayame sighed, leaning back in her chair. "He was rescued when his current doctor threw a grenade and knocked out his neural transceiver on Vega IX colony."

"What's so important?"

"Vega IX is also the homeworld of Va'kel Shon, one of Ron's closest friends. And he was on that planet for three hours. That's a long time for a borg drone. He's not sure whether or not he assimilated Shon's wife and child or not. And it's why he has problems. After the experimental flight, he planned to resign his commission anyways, at least his letter to me said so. The guilt is making him think that he doesn't deserve to wear the uniform."

Jaden sighed "Fuck… well, that explains that…" he muttered. "But still, it's only gonna be a temporary fix… you haven't seen the look in his eyes, Ma'am… it's like there's nothing there anymore."

"Then someone's got to knock something back IN. The new commander of the fleet needs to get his head out of his ass."

"…New commander?"

"He's been promoted to Fleet Admiral. He's got more multiversal bullshit experience than anyone in Starfleet, so it makes him the perfect choice. Besides, it'll also give us a chance to give him something to bitch about."

"Ummm… okay." He said, "Shit… I came in here with some long-ass speech to convince you not to accept his resignation, and you weren't even gonna do it to begin with… I feel kinda robbed…"

"Not that the three would let him." Those being the Federation Council, Chief of Staff for Starfleet Operations Admiral Jorel Quinn and President Anik Okegg. Apparently, Ron was a hero.

"So… when are we getting home?"

"We haven't figured out the system, Commander: we just followed your route. We just didn't take as long." Ayame propped her feet up on the desk and smiled cheekily. "Though if you want, you can just call me 'mom'."

At that point, Jaden just left.

The Pinkerton family was FULL of trolls!

* * *

Sonja's big belly wasn't going to stop her from working, but her urge to murder Seamus Zelazny Harper WAS going to earn her a black mark.

"I'm tellin ya, just give me the data on the holochamber!" The _Andromeda's_ engineer said, "Come on, it's not like I'm asking for whatever you've got on weapons! "

"Look, I'm not allowed to give you SHIT until my captain says anything! It's protocol!"

"And the way he's acting, that's not happenin' anytime soon. Hasn't he locked himself in that office of his?"

Sonja glared at the Terran engineer, her pregnancy seemingly making her MORE intimidating.

However Harper was spared any bodily harm as a transporter beam appeared in the room, depositing one Jaden Takeo, who sighed. "Well, good news… Ron won't lose his commision," he stated. "He's actually getting promoted to Fleet Admiral."

"Well, that's wonderful. Problem is, the bastard's locked himself in his ready room and refuses to see anyone or anything."

"Told ya." Sonja punched Harper in the face. "MY FACE!"

Pregnant women were _scary_.

"I know why the asshole's hiding. He's been wanting to leave Starfleet since he was liberated."

"Wait, _you_ knew why?" Jaden asked

"Anyone that knew Takeshi and Shon knows. Can't blame him: he doesn't remember if he assimilated Shon's family or not. But that's why we have counselors, which he refuses to see. At least the wars and Operation Delta Rising kept him from thinking about it."

"Well right now, someone needs to punch some sense into him."

"Maybe Admiral Quinn can force it into him, but he's in another universe."

"You got a universal comms problem?" Harper picked himself off the floor. "You talk to me. I got some fancy stuff involving tesseracts."

"Tesseracts? We thought about using those for long-range comms back in the 23rd century, but we gave up on it when the signals didn't make any sense. But with what we know… Jaden, we might have a way home!"

"Let's hope so." Jaden said nodding, "Maybe then we can return some fucking _sense_ to Ron… "

* * *

 **Commonwealth starship _Andromeda Ascendant_**

* * *

One of them was on board this ship.

Ryu Hisanaga had no idea who was more arrogant: the Elder Gods or the beings that controlled the power of suns that thought they could destroy them.

But after resetting his own universe and making DAMN sure the Incubators or the Borg weren't coming back, he had to make sure Ron and his sister (and by extension, his crew and fleet) weren't getting dragged into their bullshit.

"So… how many times?" Ryu spoke, as if talking to no one before a gold-skinned woman appeared from the shadows. "This couldn't have been your first loop."

"I've been working for the perfect possible future for a VERY long time, Sorcerer. Longer than you've existed. But things are looking up now."

He knew this one, to a point: she went by the name of Trance Gemini, the strongest of the avatars.

Ryu sighed as he shook his head. "I should have been notified," he retorted with a glare. "It's my job to protect realities from the Elder Ones and you've been allowing one to run around here unchecked!"

"We've been looking into ways to destroy the Abyss. You know that." Oh, the Abyss. The most wily of the Elder Gods. It was smarter than the rest: it didn't bring its' own Outsiders. It made servants in the realities it conquered.

"Still doesn't explain why you didn't tell me," Ryu countered. "I have been fighting these things for so long, I've forgotten how long it's been."

"You've been swamped since you took up the role. And it seems like your workload has tripled with those newcomers."

Ryu narrowed his eyes at Trance. "Don't even THINK of bringing them into this."

"Hisanaga, we need everything we can get our hands on to fight the Abyss. If they offer their aid, who am I to refuse?"

"Because I know how you think, and I know you will not hesitate to kill them yourself if they even _dare_ to deviate from your 'plan' in the slightest," Ryu growled in retort.

"I remember Q mentioning that he was rather hard to deal with and impossible to predict. But then he would be."

"You sent his grandparents to his universe. You and them."

Trance nodded. "And you were kind enough to take them under your protection."

That was it: the Lambent Kith Nebula fuckiong OWED him for this. They practically manipulated him with this.

"...Did you 'guide' the _Ra Cailum_ here?"

Trance nodded.

Arcane energies erupted from his body as he stared at the Solar Avatar. "You arrogant bitch," he growled as he held out his hand toward her. "I should destroy you right now, along with the rest of your race and reset _everything_ here."

"And give the Abyss a free hand?" That was really the ONLY thing stopping him. That and the _Ra Cailum_ being in that universe.

"If they come to harm, I will rip your council apart and leave _no_ survivors."

Trance sighed, closing her eyes briefly before snapping them open. "You will die in the attempt, Guardian of the Far Gates. You know that."

"You really think so, Avatar?" Ryu questioned humorously. "You think that you can _stop_ me? You think you have seen _everything_ that a Sorcerer is capable of? I _am_ the Sorcerer of the Far Gates, the Gates are _mine_ to command as are their powers, you think you can overpower one whose power extends over _every_ creation that exists?"

Trance did not answer, but instead glanced over to the general location of the _Ra Cailum_.

"You will NOT."

"If I have to. The Abyss MUST die, Hisanaga. Even if I have to hold what is most important to you hostage."

And while he didn't visit often, those two were VERY important to him.

"You and your kind will PAY for this, Sun. This I vow." The avatar disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Ryu behind.

The bitch was blackmailing him into helping with her insane 'plan'!

At least he could pay a visit to his new apprentices. Maybe Homura's insanity had stabilized enough for her to be useful.

* * *

"Jeez," Takeshi muttered. "We finally reinforcements from home, but by the time we do, Ron's locked himself in his office out of guilt."

Luna had tried everything, but she had to give up once even Cassie couldn't override the lockouts: Ron used some kind of enhanced Borg encryption combined with Data-style lockouts.

One they could break though. The combination made it impossible.

"At least we have reinforcements." Luna sighed. "And I can say hi to Aunt Ayame!"

Takeshi blanched. "NO!"

"Oh, come on."

"Do you KNOW what she did to me the last time we met?!"

"Actually, no. Every time I ask Ron about it, he just grins and laughs in that usually unsettling way of his." She adopted a similar grin, looking at Takeshi. "What'd she do?"

Takeshi shuddered. "If Ron didn't tell you, I won't, either," he said. "But it left me absolutely terrified of her."

"Well, hello, Takeshi." Takeshi froze at the voice. It sounded like Riza, but… older.

He turned his head slowly towards the source, finding a woman in the 2366 version of the uniform, with the 2371 commbadge.

It was Ayame Virgillia Wilhelmina Pinkerton. Takeshi's worse nightmare.

And Luna's stepmother.

"H-h-h-h-hello, C-c-c-c-capt-tain P-P-P-Pinkerton," Takeshi stammered.

"Haven't I told you to call me Aunt Ayame?" Takeshi wanted to sob, but constant exposure to Ron improved his resistance to fear and terror.

"So, my idiot son is in his ready room. Have you two found a way to override the lockouts?"

"Not yet," Luna replied. "He seems to have combined Borg encryption with the kind of stuff Captain Data would come up with."

"Great. Guess I'll have to let Takeo deal with him."

"Wait, what's Jaden got to do with this?"

"Your captain doesn't know about the jefferies tube leading from storage locker 1B-4T to the ready room, does he?"

Take and Luna shared a wide-eyed look. "… _We_ didn't even know that existed!"

"Yeah, that was the point, little moon. Every _Odyssey_ -Class ship's got one. And it doesn't have any security measures. It DOES come out in the head, though."

Takeshi chuckled a bit at that. "Well, I guess we have our way in - I take it Jaden's making his way through that jefferies tube right now?"

"If he doesn't get out of that fucking ready room by tomorrow or another crisis happens before then."

* * *

The _Jupiter_ -Class carrier _Avalon_ was one of two in the fleet, filled to the brim with Peregrine fighters.

And her commander wasn't happy being saddled with a newly-promoted flag officer that didn't want the job. Or the rank.

"I understand the reasoning," Vice-Admiral Lelouch Lamperouge remarked, "but I still think that if he doesn't want the job, then they shouldn't give it to him."

"It's a matter of experience, Lamperouge." Hayate replied. "Compared to EVERYONE in the fleet, he has the most experience with what he has termed 'the most fucked up' things out there. Not to mention we jumped ten universes in less than two weeks while he stayed longer."

Hayate had a point, but Ron had so many issues it was a wonder that they left him in the service to begin with.

"I still think one of us should have been placed in charge," he said. "He could be an advisor or something."

"Neither one of us are entirely flexible in unpredictable situations. Or have we forgotten when he had to save you TWICE?"

Once at Vaadwaur Prime, once at the Iconian Dyson Sphere.

And if they counted the Battle of Earth, where he saved _everyone,_ that, too.

"Alright, fine, you've made your point," Lelouch replied.

* * *

"So, this thing set up yet Harper?" Jaden asked, sliding the last isolinear chip into the device.

"Yup! But the last time I used this thing, it kinda tore through time and space and killed a friend of mine."

"You didn't install a spatial compensator and the photonic resonator wasn't precise enough." Sonja commented dryly.

Harper looked at the heavily pregnant Sonja, who groaned slightly.

"Baby wants out. I do NOT blame the little bastard."

 _BAM_

"Ow!" Harper winced after getting slugged by Jaden.

"Only reason I didn't let Sonja kick your ass is because I'm thinking of my kid." He growled, glancing at Sonja "You feeling fine, Sonja?"

"I feel like a goddamn blimp."

"...do blimps exist in the 25th Century?"

"YES!" Sonja groaned as the little guy kicked. "Fuck, just hook the damn thing into the main deflector on the _Ra Cailum_ or the _Enterprise_ : I don't want to try this on the _Damascus_ or anything that isn't an _Odyssey_ -Class starship."

"Got it," Jaden said, grabbing a set of cords and wired them into the proper consoles in engineering. "Once we start her up… cross your fingers and hang onto your butts."

* * *

The _Ra Cailum's_ deflector dish lit up, pulsing with power.

"Something's happening with the main deflector dish." Corpsa frowned. "Engineering, what the hell are you people doing?!"

" _Experiment. Why?_ "

"Last time I checked, you had to clear this shit with the captain! You're trying to open a tesseract! Do you people not remember the LAST time that happened?!"

" _We would be MORE than happy to get his clearance if he can STEP THE FUCK OUT OF HIS GODDAMNED READY ROOM!"_ Jaden retorted.

"Goddamn it." Cassie looked to one of the engineering officers. "Cut the power to the main deflector!"

"Ma'am?"

"They're going to open an interphasic rift at this rate! CUT THE POWER!"

Unfortunately, the order came too late as the deflector dish glowed white before it shot forward a stream of energy out into space, unleashing a massive explosion in the void , forming what looked like a rip in space.

"Shit. Red alert! Bridge to Pinkerton!" No answer. Cassie pounded her armrest "Captain, respond! RON! Goddamn it, answer me!"

The rift soon spat out a vessel, slowly emerging from the murky depths.

It was a _Glorious Heritage_ -Class heavy cruiser with the same IFF and hull markings as the _Andromeda_.

With one exception: there were no biological lifesigns on board. Well, there was something, but it wasn't enough to be called 'alive'.

" _Hey! What's going on out there?_ " Jaden asked. " _Did it work?_ "

"You IDIOT. You opened a rift to the Andromeda Mirror Universe!"

Corpsa looked at Cassie. "They're hailing us."

"Put it through. Jaden, make your way to storage locker 1B-4T. There's a jefferies tube that leads to the Ready room head in there. Please beat some fucking sense into Ron's head. We need him out here."

" _...Why the hell has no one TOLD ME THIS BEFORE!_ " He shouted, before there was a clattering sound, followed by the sound of running.

"Channel open."

The appearance of the Andromeda's avatar appeared on screen. " _This is XMC-10-284_ Andromeda Ascendant _. Identify yourself._ "

"This is the Federation starship _Ra Cailum_ -"

" _Commonwealth ID not confirmed. Your ship will be destroyed and incorporated into this vessel._ "

The link cut out before more Commonwealth ships came out of the rift, up to six full battlegroups and elements of at least five others. All of which fired on the Ra Cailum.

"Fuck me!"

* * *

Ron sat in his ready room alone, his back to the window not even bothering to look at the ensuing battle outside. He had resited to his fate, as far as he was concerned he was no longer fit to command the ship, let alone the fleet.

He heard a clanking noise, causing him to blink as he turned towards the door which lead to the head… before the doors were violently shoved open, as none other than Jaden Takeo stepped through, steaming towards him.

"How the hell did you-"

 _KABLAM_

Ron was sent _flying_ to the other side of the room, taking a miniature rocket to the face, actually dazing him before suddenly Jaden was atop of him… and proceeded to kick the ever-loving shit out of him.

"Where is he?!" He shouted, kicking Ron into the ground. "Where! The! Fuck! Is! RON?!"

"I am him you idiot-"

"NO YOU'RE FUCKING NOT!" He shouted, smashed his boot into his face. "The Ronald Pinkerton I know is a badass extraordinaire, takes shit from no one and fuck over people who fucks with him! Not some little whiny, angsty bitch who locks himself in a room and hides from his fucking problems like a little pussy! So Where the FUCK is Ronald Pinkerton?!"

During the last yell, Ron's aggression inhibitor shut down, his right eye shifting to a bloody red before he kicked and shoved Jaden into the bulkhead near the window, rearing his fist as soon as he was on his feet towards Jaden's head, the MS pilot's eyes widening before he ducked, the fist impacting the duranium alloy sheet, bending it.

"You have no fucking idea what I have to live with every day."

"Yeah, right. You're hiding from the fucking problem."

Ron grabbed Jaden by the throat, beginning to crush his windpipe. "I AM the fucking problem! I murdered God knows how many people on Vega colony! I might've assimilated my best friend's family! Who the fuck are you to judge me?!"

Jaden growled. "You... killed no one you… fucking idiot… " he gasped for air. "The… Borg did… even if… you weren't there… one fucking Drone wouldn't of… stopped Vega's… assimilation… it would've… just been someone… else you… fucking _RETARD! **THINK!**_ "

Ron screamed, slamming his fist millimeters from Jaden's head, the straining metal actually bending outwards before he let Jaden go, glancing out the window. "People are shooting at my ship."

"Not your ship-"

"Shut the fuck up before I shove you out the airlock."

And he was back to normal. There was finding their calm place, but calm didn't suit the bastard.

Jaden had to make him find his angry place. And nearly got killed for it.

Ron grabbed his uniform jacket, throwing it over his turtleneck. "Which idiot opened an interphasic rift?"

"Oi, we - * _cough_ * we were working on away home." Jaden said, wheezing. "I tried telling you about it, but you didn't answer your fucking combadge."

"NEVER pull that shit again. The last time that happened, we lost a starship!" He walked towards the door, which opened as he deactivated the lockouts and walked onto the bridge.

"Report!" Corpsa gave him a glare before the captain sat in his chair, facing the screen as he did before the bullshit began. "I asked a goddamn question. What the hell happened?!"

"Huge ass fleet of High Guard warships from an alternate universe are trying to kill us! What the hell did you expect?!"

"Well, then. Hail the fleet. I'm taking command. And prepare boarding parties. I'm going to take those ships from the fuckers shooting at us."

* * *

Lelouch had tried to keep the fleet in the fight, but any plan he tried to make was instantly shattered when no one obeyed, and the _Ra Cailum_ was refusing to take any of his orders. All the various fleets and ships were following their own command structure, and weren't paying a lick of attention to his word. And because of this, they were starting to take damage. Despite having a technological edge, with no coordination that advantage didn't mean much.

"Have them move to Grid K-12 - NO I said K-12!" He shouted as the Klingons continued to ignore his orders, along with everyone else. "Move over to G-2 OH COME ON!"

A phaser beam impacted the lead DSX cruiser, knocking out its' engines and weapons as the _Ra Cailum_ moved forwards at last. " _This is...fucking christ. Admiral Pinkerton. I am taking command of the fleet. All raider and destroyer-class ships, move in wolfpack formations, five ships per formation. I want you to cripple them. Cruisers, draw fire and carriers keep those fucking drones off our asses!_ "

Lelouch blinked, as suddenly all of the ships actually began to fucking _organize_ , following Pinkerton's orders by the letter, grouping up just as requested. "...you have _got_ to be kidding me… " he muttered.

His careful planning was being torn apart. "Pinkerton, what the hell are you doing?!"

" _Getting my head out of my ass and doing my fucking job, which, as usual, is cleaning up your mess. I thought by now, Lamperouge, that you'd learned that battle is fluid. No plan survives first contact. Ever. Roll with it or get swept away. Prepare your MACOs: we're taking those ships over._ "

To Lelouch's _infinite_ annoyance, the fleet was coming back together, as the only man that could demand his orders followed, and make _damn sure_ they were followed joined the battle at last. After all, he was the reason they all came here.

Still, Lelouch couldn't help but feel annoyed that a single word from Ron could move fleets, while he couldn't to get even three ships following his orders.

But it was working, as ship after ship was knocked out of action, even as the rift closed.

* * *

"Alright, let's cut the head off the snake. RWBY, beam over to the other _Andromeda_ and kill the AI using the eraser!"

"I don't think he's going to be happy about that-" Cassie attempted to comment.

"Dylan can kiss my ass, Cassie! If they're trying to kill us, we kill them the fuck back!"

" _Yes sir!_ "

"The Commonwealth needs ships and I want a _GH_! We get a chance, we take those ships! GO!"

Five complete battlegroups would be a boon to the new High Guard. And even if they only got a fraction of those ships, Starfleet would be happy about having newer designs to modernize.

The Corps was ALWAYS happy to get things from the Ra Cailum.

* * *

Dylan Hunt kept himself steady as the _Andromeda_ dropped out of slipstream. A Raptor from _Galactica_ came with news of a MASSIVE High Guard armada that almost literally dropped into their laps.

"Rommie, status."

"Seems like a major battle just went on. Just, though, I'm reading only small exchanges of fire."

Beka Valentine guided the heavy cruiser to the sight as they found minor amounts of weapons fire being exchanged between the fleets, dropping by the second as ships were either disabled or stopped on their own.

"Ok, that's a bad sign."

" _All of the High Guard units are broadcasting IFF from vessels destroyed during the Nietzschean Uprising:_ Vanguard, Fires of Orion, Lancer's Hope _and_...Andromeda Ascendant."

"... _what?_ " Dylan asked disbelieving. "That's impossible… Hail the _Ra Cailum_ , I need to know what the hell is going on!"

Andromeda opened a channel to the flagship of the fleet, Ron's face appearing seconds later. "Hunt, your fleet just tripled in size. Looks like these things came from an alternate universe where all organic life was killed and only the synthetics survived." "Ok, how did that happen?" "Your engineer's tesseract generator."

Beka facepalmed. "That idiot is going to get us all killed one day."

" _We were trying to find a way home!_ " Jaden said, patching himself into the comms. " _We didn't expect to open a rift into some kind of mirror universe!_ "

"We'll deal with it later: right now we have repairs to do and people to patch up. Ra Cailum out." The image of the fleets reappeared on the big screen.

"It appears your Commonwealth just became much more powerful. Are you sure you don't want to take control?"

Dylan gave Tyr a look, making the Nietzschean return to his work. "I thought I would ask."

"Beka, prep the Maru: we're going to have a talk with Harper."

Beka laughed as she imagined all the pain Harper was going to be in.

* * *

 **117Jorn: And he's back to his old self again!**

 **Ron the True Fan: All it took was getting him fucking mad.**

 **DKR: And Ryu may possibly end up murdering literal Suns as well, word to the wise, when your face to face with a guy who fights Cthulu on such a regular basis that they are on first name basis, _don't piss him off._**

 **117Jorn: Yeah, No shit… so how is the tentacled overlord doing? Haven't heard from him in a while…**

 **DKR: He's not bad, still chasing that asshole who stole his kid or something like that**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Alright, so, things have returned to 'semi' normal. What's going to happen next? Find out next time!**

 **Ja ne!**


	44. Chapter 44

**USS _Avalon_**

* * *

Lelouch was… disappointed.

The bastard was right, as usual. All the careful planning in the world was worthless against someone that came up with plans on the spot that adapted to the changing situation.

"…what is _with_ those people…" the Admiral groaned, slacking into his chair.

"Sadly, Admiral, the _Ra Cailum_ is known for adapting to chaotic situations better than anyone. It's why he has command of the fleet."

Lelouch glared at Hayate. "You knew that was going to happen."

"Eventually. You're an arrogant bastard, Lamperouge: you think you can plan for everything. Instead, you were shown that no one is better suited than him."

Lelouch sighed. He admitted that he was arrogant, but his strategies had led him to victory pretty much any time he took the field. He knew about the _Ra Cailum's_ reputation, but he had always dismissed that strategy.

Sun Tzu had once said "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you will not know defeat." Lelouch had taken that saying to heart, with a slight variation: "Know yourself, know your allies, know your enemy, and know the terrain, and everything will come together in your victory." And with a Preserver AI on his ship to help him study his enemies and predict their actions, he almost always had all variables under perfect control.

Although every time they tried the same with the _Ra Cailum_ , all they had were error messages. Once, there was even the dreaded Blue Screen of Death.

Sonja had laughed her ass off at that, reportedly.

Which led to the _Ra Cailum's_ idea for combat: adapt to your enemy and you survive. He thought it was wasteful, but clearly the Borg still had a few things on him. Which may have explained why Starfleet Command never let him near the Borg: his arrogance would supply the Collective with a new supply of drones and an AI.

"Fine. what's the final count?"

"46 ships damaged and over 5600 personnel injured from various things: blown out plasma conduits, exploding consoles, things like that."

"…Why DO the consoles explode, anyways? That's always plagued my mind."

"I don't think anyone really knows," Hayate replied with a shrug. "Power surges, faulty wiring… there's all sorts of theories."

"Just contact… gah… Admiral Pinkerton. I am never going to get used to that."

* * *

"I will NEVER accept staying at this fucking rank."

Cassie and Annette giggled at the new uniform jacket all lined with gold trim, with the rank pins of a fleet admiral on his collar and sleeves as well as a belt buckle with the emblem of Starfleet Command on it.

"Well face facts, you _are_ Fleet Admiral of every ship here now, so you gotta wear it," Cassie said, smiling. "It's good to have you back, Ronnie."

"Being Angsty doesn't fit you at all," Annette agreed, nodding.

Ron glared at the reflection in the mirror. At least he had two sets: one for the formal bullshit and one he would wear the rest of the time.

That being his older uniforms with the rank of captain. If that didn't tell everyone that he wanted NOTHING to do with the brass, nothing would.

"I have to go talk to Sonja and Jaden. Where the hell are they?"

"With your mother's engineering crews on the _Damascus_. I think they're going to try the tesseract thing—"

Ron beamed off the ship without a word, making his girlfriends blink in surprise.

"Did I say something wrong?" The French woman looked at Cassie dryly before nodding.

* * *

 **USS _Damascus_ \- Deck 36**

* * *

Jaden glared at the tesseract device menacingly, before he gave it a punch. "Stupid piece of SHIT!" he growled.

"Hey, stop punching my creation! You might make another one of those rift things!"

Sonja winced before punching Harper in the face. "There's no power to the damn thing. There's no risk. And I feel like shit."

Harper prepared to make another snide comment before Jaden glared at him. "What? At least this thing works. A little bit of work, a lot of luck and you'll be home in a month!"

"We ain't turning this thing on again until we KNOW it fucking works," He said, as he punched the device again. "The only good this thing did was bring Ron's groove back…"

"Actually, it could do more than that." The _Damascus'_ chief engineer, a Rigellian man wearing the same uniform as the rest of the crew, walked over holding a PADD. "You used too much power. A smaller amount would have been fine to open a rift. But it would be too unstable for any organic material to pass through: even the Admiral wouldn't survive."

"FUCK!" Jaden once again punched the device. "Even in the future nothing works!"

"Can you stop punching it? I would like to call my family some time today." Jaden looked at the Rigellian in confusion. "Buh?"

A shower of light soon deposited Ron wearing a uniform that looked similar to his older one, only… golder.

"Hi, Ron. Nice suit."

"Screw you, Sonja."

"Can't: I'm pregnant."

"TELL me you haven't hooked this thing back into the power grid yet. I would like to AVOID what happened yesterday."

"No, right now just tooling with the inner workings, trying to figure out a way so we can Phone home." Jaden said, slapping the device again.

"…did you just—never mind. Just… tell me when we can call Starfleet Command. That way I can stop wearing this fucking monkey suit and get back to my old uniforms!"

"Well, you look good in it."

"I don't want the opinion of the man that wants to jump into my pants, Jaden!"

Jaden just flipped him off. "Up yours, _Fleet Admiral Pinkerton._ "

Ron growled, preparing to beat the shit out of Jaden.

Who was saved by a whistle. Specifically, a bo'sun's whistle.

 _"Pinkerton to Pinkerton. Repeat, Pinkerton to Pinkerton."_

Jaden couldn't resist chuckling at Ayame calling her son over the PA. "What is it, Mom?"

" _Touchy. The_ Andromeda _is hailing us. And they want you on board for some signing ceremony._ "

"We'll be there. I'll be taking Jaden along. In his own monkey suit."

"Ah, fuck." Never let it be said that Ron doesn't get his revenge.

* * *

 **Commonwealth heavy cruiser _Andromeda Ascendant_**

* * *

On the observation deck, Dylan Hunt stood with his ship's avatar in front of a podium with the emblem of the High Guard proudly placed upon it.

"Two years. Two years since we started, and this is only the beginning. Today, we establish a new Systems Commonwealth. This day marks the next stage of a dream. A dream of hope, a dream of freedom, a dream that will rekindle the light of civilization." Everyone clapped at the last word, including an amused Ron.

Mostly because Jaden was wearing his least favorite formal wear. Jaden could stand the suit, he could stand the shoes, the jacket he had to wear, he could stand it all.

But what he hated the most, with every fiber of his being… was the goddamned _tie_.

"I will go back in time and _murder_ the fuck who made these things… " Jaden growled, messing with the abomination of culture wrapped around his neck like a noose.

"Consider this payback for the uniform comments." Ron, too, wore his own dress uniform: the Wrath of KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN version of the uniform, though it had the gold embroidering of a flag officer as well as the rank pin of a Fleet Admiral.

"Asshole. You get to wear your duty uniform."

"I would rather have the plain black and the rank pin of a captain."

"And joining us are the new allies of the Commonwealth, the United Federation of Planets. Representing them today is Fleet Admiral Ronald Pinkerton, captain of the Ra Cailum. Ron, would you mind coming up here?"

Jaden grinned, nudging him forward "Well _Fleet Admiral_ ," he said, "The public _needs you_."

"Fuck you." Ron approached the podium, Dylan moving out of the way as ron took his place.

"Well. Hello. Not much of a speaker. Usually, I reserve that for combat: bitching at my crew to do their jobs very, very loud." Some of the delegates laughed at the poor joke. "The Federation will be giving the Commonwealth its' full support. To that end, _Andromeda_ has been given some of the best technology we have to offer, installed by my chief engineer's husband, Jaden Takeo." Ron gestured to Jaden, who glowered at Ron in hate.

Ron simply grinned. "The Commonwealth will be vastly improved by the gifts given to Captain Hunt by my crew. I just hope you political windbags don't abuse it or I'll have to come back and start introducing people to the pointy end of my sword."

The attendees looked a bit… unnerved, which only served to make Jaden laugh.

"Enjoy your time on board. And don't try to steal anything, 'cause I'll know. And then I will introduce you to not only the pointy end of my sword, but the many people I know will break you."

Ron gave the podium back to Dylan before rejoining the fearful crowd.

"Subtle, Ron. No wonder you're a fleet admiral."

"If that doesn't get me demoted back to captain, nothing will."

* * *

Ryu walked through the halls of the _Andromeda_ , avoiding Trance like the plague before he felt a change on the ship, like something was… walking through walls.

That Elder God was going to DIE if the Abyss was the cause of this shit.

Ryu growled quietly as he prowled through the halls, looking for the disturbance as he began pulsing out his magic to force them into the open. "It is far less painful for you if you just _get out here,_ " he announced angrily. "I am on a hair trigger as it is."

The form of one of the Abyss' agents phased into existence, the black insectoid armor almost glowing in the light before it pulled out a knife-like weapon, firing a pulse of energy at Ryu.

And that was enough to piss Ryu off for the last time.

Resetting his universe made him mad.

Trance blackmailing him into helping him with their insane plan by using his godkids put him on the edge.

This pushed him off.

The beam simply winked out of existence before it even touched Ryu who turned his gaze onto the shooter. The agent literally _dissolving_ particle by particle in seconds before he gestured to another whose entire body seemed to explode into a bloody mess, the beings last few seconds gasping for air as a vacuum surrounded him.

Another attempted to attack him from behind only to vanish into thin air as the last one simply stared.

The Abyss was going to die. Today.

* * *

"Ryu's having fun."

Jaden looked at Ron, who chewed on candied apple slices. "And HOW would you know?"

"Oh, I'm hooked into _Andromeda's_ sensor network. He's killing things with black armor and knives. Something pissed him off."

"Oh great, intruders." Jaden groaned. "So who did we piss off this time?"

"Well, there's a nietzschean attempting to… wait." Ron stopped before Rommie politely excused herself from a nagging Perisid to approach Ron.

"Something I don't know about, Admiral?" Hunt asked, hearing part of their conversation.

"Captain. This promotion won't last: you've been boarded, multiple intruders on decks 20 through 45. If you excuse me, I need to get changed into my duty uniform. I'd rather not get this one torn killing things."

"Same here," Jaden said, turning around. "Don't worry Captain Hunt, Rommie, we'll get this ship cleared up before you can say fuck-all-moronic pieces of shit dumb enough to piss of Starfleet. "

Both of them walked out of the obs deck, Ron handing Jaden his assault phaser. He'd be getting something with more firepower in a minute.

* * *

Two decks and an outfit change (mostly the jacket for Ron: now he was back in his old captain's uniform) later, the pair were hunting through the _Andromeda_ , armed with phaser rifles.

"Keeping the older outfits?"

"A wise man once said 'if you're in the captain's chair, you can make a difference'. It's something my mother and I took to heart."

"Whatever suits ya," Jaden said, pumping the pulsewave phaser rifle. "So, what do they look like?"

"Black-armored freaks of nature with knife-guns."

"...Knife-guns?"

Ron stopped to look at Jaden. "You're shitting me. That's what's important to you?"

"Well, you keep mentioning that the GN sword isn't good enough for the job."

Ron groaned. "This is not the time for—" Trilling was heard from above. "Looks like Ryu missed a few."

"What the-" suddenly one dropped behind Ron. "DUCK!"

He fired the shockwave phaser at the border, sending it flying back.

"Dimensional shifting. Fuck! I hate it when people screw with that shit!"

More of the creatures phased in, firing at Jaden and Ron, moreso at Eon. They knew he was the bigger threat.

" _Andromeda_ , how many of these things are there?!"

"On board, 15 and rising, all in your section. The… sorcerer killed the rest and is en route."

Jaden fired his phaser shotgun, vaporizing another intruder. "Why isn't he teleporting?!"

The aliens dogpiled Ron before shocking him with their knife-gun things, bypassing his personal shields entirely before two of them phased out.

With Ron being dragged along for the ride.

"SHIT FUCK RON!" Jaden shouted. "FUCKFUCKFUCK!" He slammed the commbadge "GUYS WE'VE GOT A PROBLEM, BIG FUCKING PROBLEM!"

The remaining aliens phased away, hissing almost mockingly. " _This is_ Damascus _Actual: we just lost my son's signal! Where the hell did he go?_ "

"They took him!" Jaden shouted, running through the ship. "They just disappeared and took him with him!" suddenly the whole _Andromeda_ shook . "AND WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!"

" _A ship just appeared off_ Andromeda's _portside. And it just disappeared. It's fucking tesseracting! Jaden, get back to the_ Ra Cailum _: there aren't anymore signatures on board the_ Andromeda _and we need everyone where they need to be. Your place is on the_ Ra Cailum."

"Oh _fuck,_ " Jaden groaned as he tapped the badge again. " _Ra Cailum_ , beam me back - and try and find Ron!"

* * *

Nena Trinity wasn't amused. Ron was missing, taken by the aliens.

Ryu was no doubt pissed, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was Jaden and how she and Sonja screwed with his head.

In the last three weeks, Jaden had been having… dreams.

All of them caused by Nena and Sonja, who decided to have some fun at Jaden's expense.

They were… for lack of a better term, _haunting_ Jaden with holograms of both Jade and Veronica using the VR Interfaces from the Colonial universe.

But now they were backfiring as Jaden beamed back to the _Ra Cailum,_ who was… fucking mad.

And openly admitting that he was attracted to Ron now.

"I'M TOO IN LOVE WITH THAT BASTARD TO LOSE HIM NOW! CASSIE! WHERE'D HE GO!" Jaden planted his ass in the captain's chair.

Not reprimanding Jaden for giving her orders like he was the captain, Cassie worked away at both her console and used her connection to the ship to find out. After all, her lover was missing.

"I am picking up multiple targets near a subspace 'tunnel'. It's a fleet of enemy warships. We're barely picking them up through a subspace echogram: most sensors wouldn't pick it up."

The Abyss wanted to ruin the idea of the Commonwealth, make it easier for the Magog to tear through the tri-galaxies when the worldship arrived.

"And Ron?"

"If the aliens are from that tunnel, Ron's in there."

"Then that's where we're fucking heading!" Jaden said, "Riza?"

"Yes, Jaden?"

"Sic e'm."

"Aye aye."

The _Ra Cailum_ began moving out, going at full impulse.

"Allied ships are moving in, firing at all coordinates. It's like carpet bombing space. Or wackamole."

"Who doesn't enjoy a good game of smacking some rodent upside the head?" Jaden had a brief laugh at his own joke before steeling himself. "Take us into the tunnel. We're going to make the Abyss regret thinking of taking Ron."

"And what if the Abyss is already regretting taking him?"

"Then we are gonna _make his day **worse.**_ " Jaden growled out with a feral grin.

 _This_ was why the _Ra Cailum_ crew loved Jaden. He may not be Ron, but having him around helps balance the crazy when their real captain was MIA. No one even _questioned_ how he turned his voice demonic at the end.

More of the alien ships dropped out of phase, getting cored by phasers and disruptors fired from the Alliance fleet, as well as missiles from the Sabra-Jaguar fleet and just about everyone else allied with the Commonwealth.

" _This is the_ Eureka Maru _: we're deploying a large-scale bomb into the tunnel. Everyone clear the fuck out!_ "

Bomb? BOMB?!

"Wait, Ron's in there!" Jaden shouted, eyes wide "Riza, faster!" Riza redlined the impulse engines, but the smaller _Maru_ managed to reach the tunnel first, launching the bomb.

"NonononoNo!NO!NOOOOOO!" Jaden shouted out, as the bomb reached the opening…

 ** _*KABOOM*_**

There was a single, large blinding explosion erupted across space, as the rift in space closed, it was gone.

Ron was gone.

He was gone… because of the _Andromeda_.

Jaden's eyes twitched. "Adjust fire… to the _Andromeda_." He growled.

"Excuse me?"

"WE LOST RON BECAUSE OF THEM, SO FUCK 'EM!" He shouted, slamming his fist against a consol. "SHOOT. THEM. DOWN!"

* * *

Dylan let out a breath as the tunnel was confirmed closed. "Dylan, the _Ra Cailum_ is beginning to make aggressive maneuvers. Her weapons are fully powered." Screen Rommie reported.

"We just got finished with a battle. I thought they—"

"They are targeting us."

Harper's eyes widened. "Uh, Boss?"

"I know. Time to put those new shields to the test."

It was ironic.

Almost a year ago, he told a Ne'Holland cutter that fucking with the _Andromeda_ was a mistake: the _Glorious Heritage_ -Class was a heavy cruiser and the missile plume would rip his ship apart.

Now the heavy cruiser was facing a superdreadnought.

"Rommie, evasive maneuvers, keep our distance. Tyr, fully spread of decoys, see if we can be spared some fire."

They doubted those would work. The _Ra Cailum_ had cut through High Guard ECM before.

So they pinned all of their hopes on their new shields and prayed that Harper could keep them up.

* * *

 **117Jorn: …So… angst is over… now we've got another… issue…**

 **Redemption's Avenger: _Issue_? You call that an issue? Jaden is about to fire on _Andromeda,_ Ron is Force-knows where, and you call that a simple _issue!?_**

 **Ron the True Fan: I call it FUN. A ship half the size and five times the power going up against an upgraded _Andromeda_. Make your bets!**

 **117Jorn: This is gonna be a fight where _no one_ wins, isn't it?**

 **Ruby: Good guys fighting good guys. So...no?**

 **Ron the True Fan: I'll get the popcorn.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	45. Chapter 45

**Commonwealth heavy cruiser _Andromeda Ascendant_**

* * *

"Missile tubes one through eighty, fire photonic torpedoes, phase cannons, hot standby!"

The _Ra Cailum_ had provided many advanced toys: shields, antimatter weapons, phase particle weapons and second-generation transporters.

But the _Ra Cailum_ was an _Odyssey_ -Class superdreadnought under the command of a VERY angry man.

No matter what happened… this wasn't going to end well for the crew of the Commonwealth ship.

"Where are those missiles?!"

"We fired them, but they've already been intercepted!" Tyr called out in alarm.

"Andromeda?!"

"The _Ra Cailum_ has an enhanced interception system. Only five torpedoes got through. Her shields are holding at full power."

The _Andromeda_ shuddered under a massive beam of power impacting the new shields. "Shields are at 84%."

Harper whooped. "My new pet power project just saved our asses! I hooked a subspace capacitor cell into the power grid: it's feeding power to the _Andromeda_ in penny packets. But unless we upgrade the grid, that's a trickle: I ramp it up to full, we'll fry."

"Give me what you can, Harper!" Dylan shouted. "We don't hold out long enough, we're dead until someone can reason with them!"

"Tubes reloaded with kinetic warheads. Firing."

* * *

 **USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

"Incoming!" The ship shook as kinetic missiles impacted the shields. "Shields holding at 98%. The _Andromeda_ isn't fully refit: they'd be an even match if they were."

"Knock out their shields. Phasers, target their impulse engines: I want that ship on sublight!"

Corpsa sighed. "Jaden, this doesn't make any sense. They didn't know!"

"WE WARNED THEM ON THE FUCKING COMMS!" He roared back, actually causing her to flinch. "We told them Ron was in there! Now he's fucking gone, and I'm gonna fuck their shit because of it! Now _FIRE!_ "

Corpsa sighed again, locking phasers on the _Andromeda_ , and firing the dorsal array.

* * *

Command shook as another phaser impacted the shields, Beka replacing Rommie at the helm. "Dylan, what did we do to piss off Pinkerton?"

"I don't know, Beka, but I need you to keep us out of their line of fire. Tyr, phase cannons!"

The Nietzschean made a low growl of assent. He hadn't had a real challenge like this in YEARS!

"Firing!"

* * *

The _Ra Cailum_ shook from the return fire. "Direct hits, shields are at 89%! They're overcharging their phase cannons to compensate against our shields."

"Then overcharge ours! Rip them apart, force an opening and shove some torpedoes up their asses!" Jaden growled.

Corpsa instead armed the photons, firing a volley of six at the heavy cruiser as well as a phaser spread.

* * *

 _Andromeda_ shook and consoles sparked from impacts to the shields. "Shields weakening: forward shields are at 51%."

"Overwhelm their defenses, Andromeda: phase cannons, AP cannons, everything we've got!"

The two ships continued to exchange fire, but Andromeda was losing.

* * *

 **USS _Enterprise_**

* * *

Va'kel Shon looked at the battle between the _Ra Cailum_ and the _Andromeda_. It was heavily biased to the _Ra Cailum_ , but the Andromeda was giving as good as she could.

"To hell with this. Hail the _Ra Cailum_."

"I have been, Captain. No response."

"Then get me the _Lieset_ and _Bortasqu_." Maybe Jarok and Koren could force the issue.

"I've got them."

" _Captain Shon… could you explain why I'm detecting the_ Ra Cailum _attacking the_ Andromeda?" The captain of the _Lieset_ informed.

"If I knew myself, Commander, I wouldn't be calling you."

" _...are you suggesting we attack the_ Andromeda?"

On the other half of the screen, Koren laughed. " _Jarok, he suggests attacking the_ Ra Cailum _! This will be GLORIOUS!_ "

"We're not going to destroy her. Make her break off, yes."

" _I know better then to kill an ally, Captain Shon. but testing the_ Bortasqu _against_ him _is the stuff of legend! Chech chew jaj-Vam jaj-kak_!"

'Today is a good day to die', indeed.

"Red Alert! All hands to battlestations!"

* * *

"Uh, Jaden? The _Enterprise, Lieset,_ and _Bortasqu_ are incoming!"

"Then tell them to shoot _Andromeda_!"

"They're-" the ship shook "-targeting us!"

Jaden growled. Didn't they realize the _Andromeda's_ the reason they didn't have Ron anymore?! "Focus on _Andromeda_ , and force them to back the fuck off!" He shouted. "This is between me and that fucker Hunt!"

Fire from the _Bortasqu_ and _Lieset's_ forward guns slammed into the _Ra Calium,_ while the _Enterprise_ placed herself between the _Andromeda_ and the rampaging superdreadnought, broadsiding her younger sister-ship.

Jaden snarled. "Sonja, magnetometric overload, push them back!"

The deflector pulsed, pushing back the three dreadnoughts with the surge. The _Enterprise_ just barely avoided colliding with _Andromeda,_ a testament to the skills of her pilot. Undeterred, the three flagships resumed their assault.

"Corpsa, broadsides on the _Bortasqu_ and _Lieset,_ photon torps on the-"

Jaden was sent flying from the chair as the _Ra Calium_ was sent spinning out of control, courtesy of three prematurely detonated torpedoes, fired from the _Damascus._

"Ra Calium, _stand the fuck down!_ " Ayame Pinkerton shouted over the comms as she forced open a connection.

"Like hell I will!"

" _Takeo? Where the fuck is my son?!_ "

"Why don't you ask Hunt? He fired a super-nova bomb into that tunnel! With Ron inside it!"

At this, the _Damascus_ maneuvered into position. " _Hail the_ Andromeda _._ "

* * *

Dylan was thankful for the aid from the _Enterprise_ and her counterparts. "Dylan, the _Ra Cailum_ is hailing us."

"Finally," Dylan muttered. "Patch him through… Pinkerton what the hell are you-"

" _RON'S GONE BECAUSE OF YOU FUCKS!_ " Jaden roared on the comms.

Tyr frowned. "That explains the raw brutality of the attacks." Pinkerton was brutal, but his brutality was graceful in a way, designed to cause more and more damage to his enemies.

This was simply revenge from someone with confused feelings.

"Commander Takeo. You skipped the first two steps of the three Vs."

"And what would THOSE be?"

"Visualize, verify and get very, very pissed off."

Which seemed to be Ron's MO pre and post-angst.

" _I TOLD you he was still in there!_ " He growled. " _Now he's fucking GONE!_ "

"We didn't get the transmission, Jaden: we barely have the new subspace com system online."

" _We fucking noticed. You're going to help us get him back, or I swear by everything holy I will fucking_ destroy _the_ Andromeda _!_ "

Jaden wasn't thinking straight, Dylan didn't know why and didn't care.

"We will… do what we can."

" _You fucking better, or me ripping your ship apart will be the_ least _of your worries Hunt._ " And the screen snapped off.

Beka looked at Dylan. "So how screwed are we?"

"Well, Beka, seeing as the _Ra Cailum_ was kicking our asses..." Harper got up and ran out of command.

He had a ship to make ready in case Jaden decided to kill them all.

Because if they couldn't get the tunnel open, they were going to have to fight that ship again.

* * *

Harper hadn't invented the Jaws of Life yet, so he was being rushed into remaking the damn thing with Sonja's help.

For his own safety, he didn't make any pregnant jokes.

"So… what drove your boyfriend off the edge? Seriously, your boss can't be THAT important to him."

"None of your damn business, that's what." Sonja growled.

The engineer sighed before she continued work on the Jaws. Forcing open a dimensional tunnel was a bad idea: she would know from the evil Andromeda incident.

Still, rescuing Ron was important. They needed his insanity to counteract the insanity they usually ran into, because nothing could stand up to him.

People listened to him, he got shit done, and very rarely dealt with politics. He left that to equally crazy politicians like Liu Mei and Ryoko.

"I kinda feel bad about the VR thing with Jaden now…" Nena whispered to Sonja. "Didn't think he'd explode like this…"

"Yeah… do you regret it?"

"Hell no, still too damn fun. You?"

Sonja smirked slightly. "Do it all over again once we get the Captain back," she said. "Starting to consider jumping in..."

"I kinda already have…" Sonja blinked as she looked at Nena. "Huh?"

The Gundam pilot and engineer blushed slightly. "Okay, I… _may_ have snuck on a VR set during some of Ron and Jaden's dreams and… joined the fun…" she muttered. "You know, on the… off chance Jaden _does_ change over, and we need to… ya know… _accommodate_ …"

"…you're starting to like Ron." Sonja stated accusingly with a smirk.

"Do _not_ tell Cassie or Annette." She muttered, glancing around as if they were listening, even though both were on the _Ra Cailum_. "At first it was just a simple attraction, but then… fuck… I might be attracted to crazy like Jaden is… "

"Don't be. You're not the only one." Nena looked at Sonja. "You, too?"

"It was when we were on the original _Ra Cailum_ and he broke me out of the stockade on Mars. But he was disinterested: had no interest in romance. Then Cassie entered the picture and I gave up, especially after Annette joined in. But if Jaden shows interest, we can all be together. Just ONE problem."

"Only one?"

"Ron ain't gay. He doesn't begrudge people their sexual orientation-it's the 25th Century, who gives a fuck?-but he's hetrosexual through and through."

"Knew that, as is Jaden… though if he goes through _it_ … "

"…the sex change?"

"We need an excuse though…" Nena muttered in thought. "He won't just do it on a whim, even with all the pressure we're putting him in… we need to give him a legit reason to switch aside from Ron…"

"Well, that's not going to happen. There is no reason beyond choice to do it. …Keep up the pressure."

Turning Jaden bisexual was the easy part. Making him willingly become a girl?

Not so much.

But they wanted to be with him and their would-be-future-mother-in-law clearly approved of Ron having more than one girl.

Maybe it was a Nietzschean thing: most males had multiple wives.

"Well… next few days are-" Suddenly alarms began to go off. "Well, it's not the _Ra Cailum_."

"Why you say that?"

"We're not dead… and Jaden'd kill himself before shooting a ship with _us_ onboard."

* * *

"What the hell is it?"

Cassie looked at her console, shaking her head. "Long range sensors are picking up a large object approaching our position at impulse speed, roughly 30 lightminutes out."

"Define 'large'."

"It's the size of a fucking moon."

"Do we have a visual?" Jaden asked, as Cassie nodded towards the screen - and what appeared to be a large moon-sized object was steadily approaching them. "…can you scan it? Any life signs?"

Cassie didn't say anything for a second. "I'll launch a probe. We can't pick up any lifesigns from here."

Jaden did NOT like that. He liked answers fast, like Ron. But sensor range was limited: while they could pick up signs of life and movement, lifesigns at this range wasn't accurate.

"Do it, make it fast." He said, "I don't like the look of that thing… it just screams bad things… "

The probe launched, going to warp 2 before reaching the minimum range needed. "Running deep scan now." Jaden waited for a moment. "It's not a moon. It's a ship. A ship full of lifeforms. Commonwealth medical database has an ID."

"And?"

"…they're Magog."

"…welp, time to kill some space bat-people," Jaden said. "Red Alert!"

* * *

On the _Andromeda_ , Nena and Sonja arrived on the bridge, almost waddling due to their… extra passengers.

"Ok, what the hell's going on?"

Beka looked at Sonja. "Gonna kiss your baby with that mouth?"

"You won't have much of a mouth to talk with if you don't answer my question."

"We've got some kind of Magog ship approaching," Dylan informed. "Filled with them in a moon-sized vessel, and its heading this way."

"I thought that worldship was years away." Nena asked.

"It's not the worldship: too small."

Dylan paused. "Huh. There's a sentence that I'd never thought I'd say in regards to the Magog and their big ships."

"Still we've got at least several million Magog on that thing, and they are gonna be _hungry_ ," Beka muttered. "And thanks to your boyfriend, _Andromeda_ ain't doing so good…"

"It's YOUR fault Ron is missing."

Tyr facepalmed. "Oh, be quiet! We have enough problems with the Magog without you two pining for a man who is dead! We have to worry about our own survival now. Does the _Ra Cailum_ have any weapons that can destroy a moon?"

"Photon Torpedoes set on a high yield probably." Nena shrugged. "Then again that's assuming we don't run into that Abyss thing that you guys met during your last encounter… fucker could tank a _nova bomb_ , seriously?"

Dylan chuckled. "I would know, I was there for the Nova." Alarms began to go off. "Andromeda?"

The AI appeared on one of the big screens. "Magog swarmships are incoming, 12 lightminutes out."

"Oh, that's just great. Harper!"

"Hey, I don't want my guts to be home to little Magog babies again, either, but the shields are screwed!"

Dylan looked at Sonja. "You two better head back to the _Ra Cailum_. And send over as many security teams as you can, please. We're going to need them."

"The fleet is moving to combat stations." Rommie reported. " _Galactica_ and _Pegasus_ are covering us."

"Good, their flak fields should keep those swarm ships away. Still, have the internal defenses ready." Dylan sighed, preparing himself. "This is it people."

* * *

The Magog were ruthless furry bat-faced monsters that, if they bit you, implanted their larvae into you which ate their way out.

Their swarmships were armed with point singularity projectors, firing mini-black holes which tore their targets apart if they hit and they were designed to punch through the hulls of most starships.

The first swarmships weren't even able to get shots off as the Trek ships opened up far outside the swarmship's effective range, destroying dozens in an instant.

But that wasn't enough: swarm ships lived up to their name. There were hundreds, if not thousands of them. While they could not all get through, enough of them did, either impacting the shields of the ships harmlessly, shredding themselves on shrapnel, or, in most cases, impacting the armored hull of the _Andromeda_.

"Ohshitohshitohshit!" Harper panicked, memories of a similar situation still fresh on his mind. "Intruders across outer decks! Shitshitshit."

"Rommie, get an android to bring some equipment from the armory down here, then seal the bridge. See if you can get some fellow security teams on board."

" _Teams JNPR, RWBY and CFVY and Thyler responding. Automated defenses active._ "

" _RWBY here, ready to kick some ass!_ " Yang shouted on the comms. " _*snif* Ugh… I can already_ smell _them… make Grimm smell like high-quality perfume…_ "

The ship began to thud, impacted by the swarm ships punching through the hull. "Won't this be fun."

* * *

If they were smaller and had wings, Ruby would say the Magog were like bats.

But these bats had the disposition of an angry Ursa mixed with Yang after someone touched her hair.

At least one shot put them on the ground. The problem was that there were so MANY of them.

But unfortunately for them, the Hunters had _plenty_ of ammo.

Coco just stood her ground as she unleashed her gatling gun upon the Magog, ripping them apart as they charged the halls of _Andromeda_ , as Yatsuhashi and Fox patted away any that managed to get too close, and Velvet covering their rear if any tried to flank them through other corridors. "Not very smart, are they?" Coco shouted over her gunfire.

"No one accused the Magog of being smart! Just numerous and breeding like invasive tribbles!"

 _BOOM_!

"...Ruby's using the exploding tribbles again, isn't she?" Velvet sighed as she fired her new force lance, watching Ruby zip through the Magog before her furry explosives caused furry monsters to turn into furry explosions.

Have we mentioned that Ruby's explosives are tribbles?

"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" She cheered out, dropping tribbles and feeding more to breed _more_ tribbles just to drop them into the faces of more Magog as she sped across the attacker's formations, leaving behind a trail of dust, smoke, ashes, blood, and rose petals in her wake.

"Ron corrupted her."

Coco scoffed. "Please. She was always screwy, being on the Ra cailum just gave her opportunities to express it!"

Two Magog squealed as Yatsuhashi impaled them before the rest began to fall back.

"Someone's guiding the Magog." Blake reloaded her handgun. "There's a signal on ultrasonic frequencies, ordering the furry bastards to fall back and regroup."

"Probably that Abyss thing we heard about." Weiss said, flinging the blood off of Myrtenaster. "Or something the _Andromeda_ hasn't encountered yet."

Blake furrowed her brows. "It's on a mid-band. Being generated by something metallic on deck 34."

"Jaune, you're on Deck 36, can you home in on a metallic object generating sound on an ultrasonic frequency?"

* * *

Jaune shoved his sword into the gut of a Magog before shoving it off with his shield. "Ruby, I'm waist deep in furry monsters! I can't run up two decks to check something out!"

" _Then make a path!_ "

Jaune cursed, "Nora, charge up! Ren, cover her! Pyrrha, we're tanking!"

Nora grinned as she flipped Magnhild into hammer mode, as electricity began to spark around it and her.

The Magog ran back, rushing up the ladders.

"Ok, this is bad. Magog are mindless predators: they don't just run back." The last Magog squealed before a sword was shoved through its' head, thrown from the next highest deck.

A crossguard with a simple metal handguard, a straight double-edged blade until the last half-foot of the blade, which curved back.

A kilij. But not any kilij.

It was Ron's kilij.

"Wait… Ron?" Jaune muttered, "Captain Pinkerton! You up there?!"

They waited for a moment, before a familiar figure dropped from the decks above, being none other than the Captain himself, first bringing joy to the team… before he turned his head, and they saw his eyes… the glowing red eyes of the Abyss.

"…Oh fuck…" Jaune swore, backing up.

He pulled the sword out of the Magog before laughing. "Children have no place facing the Abyss. Prepare to die."

JNPR didn't have a chance in hell against Ron normally. This Abyss-controlled Ron?

"RUN!"

There was just one problem with that.

You can't outrun the Abyss. You either face it…

Or you die.

* * *

 **117Jorn: …*points M-920 Cain towards Ron***

 **Ron the True Fan: The fuck did I do?**

 **117Jorn: Get the hell out of Ron before I blow you into oblivion, Abyss… *RWBY prepares weapons behind him***

 **Takeshi Yamato: Oh, boy, things are really getting nasty now.**

 **Ron the True Fan: I'm… going to run now.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: *Hefts M247H HMG* Oh, you should.**

 **Ruby: Get him!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	46. Chapter 46

**Commonwealth heavy cruiser _Andromeda Ascendant_**

* * *

There are things everyone fears.

Takeshi Yamato fears Ronald Pinkerton's mother for reasons unknown, for example.

At the moment, however, Team JNPR's greatest fear was the one thing they could never truly combat: Ronald Peter Albert Pinkerton, captain of the _Ra Cailum_.

Who, if readers remember, is currently possessed by the Spirit of the Abyss.

" _Run… that by me… again._ " Jaden growled, glaring at Dylan. " _Ron… our fucking Fleet Admiral… is now being controlled… by a fucking outer god?_ "

"He's currently trying and VERY close to succeeding in killing Team J-N-P-R." Dylan frowned. "…How the hell do you pronounce that?"

" _Juniper, and that's beside the point! Is there ANY way to purge that thing out of him WITHOUT killing Ron?_ "

Jaden raised a VERY good point.

In the Andromeda canon, anything possessed by the Abyss died as soon as it was defeated: General Burma, for example.

Now they had someone _infinitely_ worse they needed to save.

The acting captain of the _Ra Cailum_ turned to face Ryu Hisanaga, who had remained silent after hearing the news. "Well, Mr. Hisanaga?" He asked. "Is it possible? You know more about these things than we do."

"You keep him occupied," Ryu said, rage building in his voice as he shook subtly. "I am going to go murder a god, and quite possibly, several more afterwards, if he still has the amulet, he should be fine."

"Amulet?"

"Does he wear a metal necklace, with strange runes on it?"

Jaden shook his head, but he'd never seen Ron wearing anything less than his inner turtleneck. "Cassie?"

The AI/Innovade let out a breath. " _He does. Keeps it on him despite it being against the uniform code. Then again, as long as they don't get in the way, he's relaxed the code on the_ Ra Cailum."

"That's the one, it'll protect him from the backlash," Ryu informed as a gate opened. "And be prepared to leave as soon as possible, I may end up making this reality extinct."

"First thing's first: save Ron!"

* * *

The fist of the Abyss slammed into Crocea Mors, the tritanium-reinforced shield tanking the hit better than the man holding the shield itself.

Jaune never thought he would fight Ron outside of regulated spars. NOW he was actively trying to kill them all!

"Tell me, Arc… how is that fool, Hisanaga? Standing guard by the Gates all the time made him look foolish."

Nora fired grenades at the Abyssal Ron, who flicked them aside more easily than Ron himself would have. On the other hand, Elder God.

"You are pathetic."

"Just keep running!" Jaune shouted as the four continued their fighting retreat/panicked running from the possessed Ron who continued to pursue them across the halls of the vessel relentlessly.

"Children playing the game of gods."

They stopped as Ron suddenly teleported in front of them. "Oh, fuck, he can teleport!"

Technically, tesseract, but same thing.

"You are nothing." Fire formed in Ron's hands, his eyes glowing like Cinder's did, only… more insane, if possible.

He forced a gout of flame at them, hiding behind the shields, but their PSGs actually had to cover the rest of them.

"HOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOT!" Nora shouted, wincing as the PSG's couldn't protect them from all of the heat. "WHAT IS THIS THING'S OBSESSION WITH FIRE?!"

The blaze subsided long enough for them to flee, but Ron was after them.

A round impacted his head, making him pause.

"Hey!" His head turned to look at the source.

A little girl in a red cloak, with glowing silver eyes, trying to play hero.

"Ruby Rose. I will break you before I force your mother to watch you die before her eyes."

* * *

Sonja wasn't pleased. "Ok, Ron had a plan for something like this."

Jaden looked at his pregnant girlfriend. "A plan?!"

"Yeah, ever watch Wolf in the Fold?"

"The ToS episode? Yeah."

"Ron kinda made a plan to counteract that, but it's… insane. It's all tied to the aggression inhibitor."

The 'everything dies because I'm fucking MAD' blocker. "Ok, what is it?"

"If anything took control of him, they would be tied in with the rage: they would suffer tunnel-vision, blindsides, you get the idea."

"So we get him mad, so he keeps his attention on us and not everything else."

"Yup. We just have to distract him long enough for Ryu to do his magic shit and hope we don't die in the process."

"Problem is, I'm locked out. We have to get him mad the old fashioned way." Jaden began sobbing.

Getting Ron and the Abyss mad was suicide.

"Well, it's insane, but Ron would do it. Question is, how do we piss them off?"

* * *

"Your refusal to die irritates me!" Abyss shouted, clashing blades with Ruby. Ruby flipped back, firing off Jaden's GN Dust rounds as she did so. Ron tanked them with a grunt.

Yang came flying in from behind, coming in with a devastating right hook to Ron's side, firing off Ember Celia's entire belt in the process, sending him flying dozens of meters down the hallway.

Blake and Weiss were there to meet him. Weiss increased their speed with a time glyph, and Blake used that speed to dash forward and deliver a powerful upwards slash with both her weapons. Abyss actually went up through the ceiling onto the next deck, slamming into that ceiling,

Weiss darted up through the hole, slashing at his arms with dozens of strikes before he even hit the ground.

" _ENOUGH!_ "

A shockwave of fire radiated out from the Abyss, sending Weiss flying from the unexpected attack. She bounced to a halt and struggled to get up. He was there, however, picking her up by her throat and slamming her against the bulkhead.

"Your resistance up to now has been admirable, but now you die!" He declared, rearing a flaming fist back.

Ron suddenly wasn't there as something hit him from the side, _hard_. Weiss dropped to the deck plating, coughing hard.

"Weiss!" Ruby was there beside her, looking over her girlfriend in concern.

"I'm fine." The former heiress smiled weakly. "Thanks for the save."

"That wasn't me." Ruby nodded down the hallway. Weiss turned to look.

Mark was fighting the Abyss with everything he had, the dual blades of Calamity matching Ron's sword blow for blow in a blur of motion. Gusts of wind and blasts of plasma flew from the battle.

"Come on, we need to get him angry!"

Weiss blinked. "WHY?"

"Trust me!" Ruby darted forward, the rest of her team, JNPR and CVFY following.

The possessed captain's movements continued to speed up to the point where Mark had a hard time tracking Ron's movements. "You can't stop the Abyss!"

"No, but I can damn well tr—" A tritanium-toed boot was shoved between Mark's legs before his face was introduced to Ron's fist, slamming him into a bulkhead.

"Pathetic." Another round slammed into Ron's head, but like the last one, didn't do anything but impact his shields.

The captain looked at the one who fired: Lunamaria, holding an SRS-99. "Get out of my brother, you fucking bastard!"

His eyes glowed red, snarling as Ruby fired another round into his head. This was going to take a while.

* * *

The bridge doors blasted open, heralding the arrival of Ron, who went flying to a stop in front of the main viewscreen.

Everyone turned to stare at the man as he glowered at them before he released a loud, almost animalistic roar.

Well, more like a banshee's screeching wail, but it was enough to make them pull out their weapons and fire at him, the gauss rounds impacting the shields before he rushed at Tyr, his fist impacting the Nietzschean's chest, breaking 5 ribs in the doing before Beka jumped at the captain, knocking him away as his fist made a rather fast approach to Tyr's head, which would have turned it into a bloody mess.

* * *

Ryu was NOT a fan of Magog, but he could destroy them with ease.

But having to turn to Trance fucking Gemini for help?

He would rather burn this universe to ash.

The Avatar of Tran-Vadra's sun fired her force lance into a Magog's chest as the rest were vaporized by a VERY angry Ryu. "Thank you. I was running out of ammo for my weapon."

"You will keep them occupied until I _say_ you're done," Ryu growled angrily as he flared his power, slamming her avatar back into a bulkhead. "I am done playing these games, you have caused something to happen which _I_ do not like, and I am going to fix it, your plan be damned, and if you _dare_ touch the _Ra Cailum_ I will destroy each and every parallel reality connected to this one, and  you _will_ watch, unable to do anything as _everything_ you care about is wiped away. No reset, no rebirth, just nothingness, ** _do you understand me_**?"

Trance simply nodded. She may have commanded the power of a sun, but she had no intention of fucking with Ryu.

Blackmailing him under semi-ideal circumstances to help kill the Abyss, yes, but actively fight him?

Hell no. That would be suicide under the best conditions.

"What do you plan to do?"

"Simple, I am going to do my job, and kill a god," Ryu replied angrily as blank sigils began to appear on his body. "It is time to remind you, and every reality out there, that what I have shown so far was my own power _before_ I became a Sorcerer." Ryu disappeared in a blink of an eye, off to do as he said.

* * *

"…I hate this idea… yet I love it as well." Jaden sighed as he looked at a big, red button placed his wrist as he approached the bridge of _Andromeda_ \- already he could hear the sound of fighting. "So… I just gotta push the button, right?"

" _And he'll be as mad as Sela after she rammed the_ Ra Cailum _right before the Iconians dragged her through that gateway._ " Sonja informed " _Actually worse, if you can think about it._ "

Jaden huffed at Sonja's overly simple explanation. On the other hand, Sela had to be pretty fucking mad after her ship was fucked by a single ramming attack.

"* _Sigh_ *… doing this for your own good, Ron…" he muttered, "RWBY better show up ASAP for this to work… " He arrived at the main doors as they opened…

…and Tyr went flying right past him, sliding against the ground. Jaden focused on the Abyss as he continued to duel with Ryu, as a raw, all-out battle between the sorcerer and the outer god was well underway, energies clashing between the two as anything that remained between them was obliterated.

He gulped as he ensured the power armor he wore was at max power as he lifted up his wrist. "HEY JACKASS!" He shouted, gaining the Abyss's attention. "TIME TO GET ANGRY!" And with that, his hand slammed against the button.

The possessed man froze for a moment before screaming loud enough that Jaden was sure people were going to need to visit medical after this.

Plus side: Ron's rage was the Abyss' rage and if he couldn't focus on using its' godlike powers, so much the better.

Downside? Ron had the force to cause small earthquakes with the absolute maximum force he hit with, likely amplified by the Abyss controlling him.

This was a bad idea, but bad ideas were often the best ideas.

"Well Jackass? COME AT ME!" He shouted, pulling out a phaser and firing it at Ron/Abyss, grabbing its attention.

Which, fortunately or unfortunately, it did.

Ron moved towards Jaden FAR too fast for the MS pilot's liking, snarling like a livid animal.

At least the attention was on Jaden now.

A plasma burst impacted Ron's head, doing nothing but catching his attention as he looked at Dylan, holding his force lance, smoking from the shot. "Aw, crap."

Like a killer rabbit, Ron jumped at Dylan, ignoring everything. Jaden didn't get it: only him and Hunt were HVTs to this thing for some reason. Dylan was pinned almost instantly, shoved into a console before Ron reared his fist back.

"So much for the all-powerful Paradine."

"BOOP!"

* _SLAM_ *

Suddenly Ron was sent _flying_ into a series of consoles, crashing into them and forming a Ron-shaped hole into the wall.

Nora blinked as she looked at her hammer. "…HOLY SHIT I HIT RON!" She cried out before letting out a whoop of excitement.

Beka panted as she picked herself off the deck. "Is he dead?"

The massive dent would've been enough to kill ANYONE. But Ron was not anyone as he slumped out of the bulkhead, his neck in an unnatural position, as if the bones were broken, with his jaw hanging out of its' socket.

"Sonja… Ron's—"

" _I see it. His spine's soft tissue is extremely elastic, so it won't tear unless you overstress it. As in pull him apart with a starship going at full impulse_."

Tyr looked almost jealous. "You can break his neck and he won't die."

" _More or less_."

"Where the fuck is RWBY…" Jaden muttered as he continued to fire upon Ron who reset his Jaw, before he charged towards Jaden, grabbing him by the neck and proceeded to choke him.

"Your resistance… is not… **_AMUSING._** " The Abyss growled, Ron's eyes glowing red. "You. _Will. **DIE.**_ "

Jaden however, well, he laughed.

" ** _You find your demise amusing?_** " It asked.

"You're… fucking… stupid." He muttered. "When Ron's angry… he doesn't pay attention!"

There was a feminine scream behind the Abyss, as Blake threw Gambol Shroud at him, digging into his skin as she retracted the device - flinging her towards him, landing on his back. In one smooth motion, she shoved her nanoprobe tubes into his neck.

"And he can't do _SHIT_ without the fucking Borg Implants!"

The Abyss tightened his grip, but strength left his hands before the right eye turned back to the normal blue, Ron falling to the deck with a thud.

"I had to shut EVERYTHING down: heart, lungs, positronic brain—" Blake began explaining.

"How long can he survive off the implants, Blake?"

"5 minutes before the organic parts of him begin to shut down. After that, he's dead."

"You hear that Abyss?" He shouted at Ron. "I don't think you wanna be stuck in there when he dies! Your move!"

The ghostly form of the Abyss rose from Ron's body, glaring at Jaden with the glowing eyes before glancing at Ron's body.

He wasn't disintegrating.

Meaning they could use him against the Abyss if they revived him.

The Elder God moved to destroy Ron's body with fire, but people had… other plans.

The moment he made contact with his body, a barrier appeared which repelled the God from him, causing the God to roar.

"Not. Again." Ryu announced his presence, his hands glowing with power. "This time… you lose, you son of a bitch."

The Abyss attempted to flee from the Sorcerer, however it was unable to leave - finally noticing the Glyph inscribed upon the bridge surface created by Ryu.

While it wasn't strong, it was enough to slow the Abyss down.

Enough for something to kill it as solar fire washed over it, a star devouring the Abyss like a fat kid eats chocolate.

As Dylan would say in the canon timeline, they smothered the bastard with a sun, as it screamed and the sun faded, keeping the crew alive.

Harper looked at Trance. "Uh… Trance? What the hell are you?"

"She's a Solar Avatar." Ryu snarled "Bitch blackmailed me into helping with her 'plan' to kill the Abyss. The Lambant Kith Nebula is going to PAY for this shit."

A groan was heard from the deck.

"Blake?" Jaden asked.

"I set the nanoprobes to reactivate his cybernetics as soon as anything invasive was removed. I think I rebooted his personal shields first."

"You did." Ron groaned, opening his eyes. "What the hell happened to me?"

"It's…" Jaden glanced around the wrecked bridge of _Andromeda_ … and laughed. "It's… a long fucking story… good to have you back, Ron… "

"Did it involve pocky? Last time something like this happened, I had pocky."

Jaden could not help it. He laughed.

Ron sat up, waving at Ryu. "So… Fun times."

"Can we leave? We killed a god: Ryu's probably going to have vacation days because of this."

"I damn well better have vacation days. I have a council of suns to murder."

Dylan chuckled. "Uh, can you stay for another month? Just enough time to secure the foundation of the Commonwealth: don't want it imploding on us."

Ron sleepily nodded before his head impacted the deck plating with a VERY hard thud.

Jaden just shook his head, lifting the man up. "Rest up, big guy…" he muttered, tapping his commbadge. "Jaden to _Ra Cailum_ … two to beam to sick bay."

Both disappeared in showers of light.

"…do we get a day off, Dylan?" Hunt walked off command, leaving his XO to huff. "Didn't think so."

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: Can you guys STOP shooting at me now?**

 **117jorn: You're SURE that thing is out of you now?**

 **Ron the True Fan: It was never in to begin with!**

 **Ruby: …I'm not sure. Keep shooting?**

 **Yang: Hell yes.**

 **Ron the True Fan: FUCK!**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Eh, what'd you expect?**

 **Ja ne!**


	47. Chapter 47

**Terazed, capital of the New Systems Commonwealth**

* * *

The _Andromeda_ and _Ra Cailum_ orbited the last holdout of the Old Commonwealth, which, thanks in no small part to a VERY pissed off Ryu, was no longer in danger.

When the Sorcerer got mad, he got genocidal on a scale that put Ron to shame: he wiped the Magog, sans a small pocket of survivors led by Reverend Behemial Far-Traveller, known and loved by the _Andromeda_ crew as Rev Bem, from existence.

Meaning all of the Magog territories were freed from the furry bastards, allowing the Commonwealth to re-expand into that space.

Ron and Dylan took their respective ships to the last known location of the Magog worldship, if only to confirm Ryu's claim. They found no evidence that it ever existed. (Besides the destroyed galaxies)

The Drago forces took a devastating blow in less than a week in a coordinated assault on their territories. Commonwealth and Alliance forces liberated dozens of slave worlds and dispatched aid and relief supplies to each one.

One world in particular was liberated: Earth.

The _Enterprise_ , _Andromeda_ and _Ra Cailum_ all shared a homeworld: the two Starfleet ships were built at San Francisco Shipyards while the Andromeda was built at Newport News. Rommie didn't give a fuck about the planet.

Cassie, on the other hand…

Well, the amount of corpses she personally made was enough to tell everyone how MAD she was.

Ron had _actually_ hid when she took his sword.

The _Hand of Scotty_ had finished construction, with the three kilometer-long catamaran-style mobile shipyard having been spared damage during the battles. The first task she started was to service the _Ra Calium_ , the superdreadnought in desperate need of it.

The sheer NUMBER of systems needing an overhaul was terrifying. The amount of combat, non-stop moving…

The only thing that didn't need work was the holodecks. Because NO ONE used them: they were always too busy.

Ron made sure of it, as he wasn't a fan of holotechnology unless absolutely necessary. It was why it took so long for him and Cassie to get together.

Speaking of get together, Ron took some time to catch up with his mother and introduce them to the girls. They met in a quiet corner in one of the _Scotty's_ lounges.

"So, your first meeting was pushing him on his ass?"

"Well, I was scared out of my mind. The aliens took us, experimented on us, effectively raped us—" Ayame frowned and Annette saw the murderous look in her eyes. "Mentally! My God, you _are_ just like your son!"

"I raised him, on and off. I didn't want him on my ship for a DAMN good reason."

She did have a point. The _Damascus_ wasn't a ship of exploration like the _Enterprise-_ D, she was a warship, and families had no place on a warship.

And her son's ship was just a bigger, meaner, more advanced and powerful version.

"Families don't belong on a starship on the frontier. They belong on a safe planet, away from attack. It's why when I took command of the _Damascus_ and Command tried to put families on board, I beamed them back to the surface and left before taking on more personnel at a starbase."

"That sounds mean."

"No. You know what I did when I heard of the destruction of the _Enterprise_ -D and the _Odyssey_? I laughed. I laughed at Starfleet's idiocy to put civilians on a starship. Sure, Koagh was smart and evaced, but they would have died in the Alpha Quadrant. So I laughed when the _Odyssey_ was destroyed with all hands. Command didn't like me. But that runs in the family, because I was right and they HATED me for it."

Annette threw a wry smile at Ron. "Let me guess. She also taught you in the ways of trollism."

Ron chuckled. "She taught me, I perfected it."

"Really?"

"She ruined the Breen at Chin'toka. I made the Iconians weep at their own stronghold and killed their leader."

"Impressive."

"The circle is complete, now _I_ am the master."

Annette and Cassie burst out laughing.

Still, that mastery had cost him dearly.

His body was ravaged, his mind was violated and he lost 8 years of his life.

At least life was repaying him: first Cassie entered his life, then Annette.

And if Jaden would make up his fucking mind, so would he, Sonja and Nena.

"Now if only Jaden could make a decision…"

"Fuck you Cassie!" Came the distant yell of an irritated Jaden.

"The fuck was that about?"

"Jaden's bisexual. Sorta. He wants to be with Ron, but he can't stomach the idea of being with him as a man. But he's avoiding the subject of a sex change."

Ayame chuckled. "My sister-in-law had the same problem. The Dominion War changed that." Ayame smirked. "Not that Lunamaria KNOWS that."

Luna herself was walking by as she heard that, and abruptly paused. "Wait, _WHAT?_ " she yelled in shock.

"She knows NOW."

"My mom was a _guy_?!"

"Well, after the Liberation of Betazed, _that_ changed. Got himself turned into a girl. Good looking one, too. If I weren't heterosexual OR married, I'd've taken her meself." Ayame chuckled disturbingly.

Luna blinked, then backed away slowly. "OK, you're starting to freak _me_ out a bit, Auntie," she said.

Ayame and her son soon shared an evil-sounding laugh. "And now I begin to understand WHY my husband is scared of you."

"You have NO idea what I did. And you will never know, if I have any say about it."

Ron looked out into the dock, observing the _Ra Cailum_ as she was serviced.

"Speaking of family, mom, what do you know about your parents?"

"Not much. I was raised by Luna's grandparents. They were killed—"

"The C. I know. Romulan bastards."

"Why do you ask? You didn't ask about them when you were younger."

"They were from this universe. It's why you still look so young: you're a Nietzschean/Heavy worlder hybrid. I'm a little watered down with dad's DNA."

"But you have Borg implants to counter that."

"Unfortunately, yes. Although, I suspect I could still kick any Nietzschean's ass without them."

"I would hope so."

* * *

Takeshi looked at the button.

"Push it."

He looked at Corpsa. "No."

"Come on, it's on a lower power setting. The rift won't happen again; why won't you push it?"

"I have a fear of large red buttons, reasons: A: Ron. B: Never press a big red button and C: Why don't _you_?"

"Because I'm not the ranking officer, _Captain_ , you're in command, that means pushing the button is YOUR responsibility."

Takeshi sighed. "Right… well, may as well get this over with." He sighed once more, before he pressed the button.

The _Ra Cailum's_ deflector dish activated, one of the few things still active. "Tesseract is stable. Channel open."

Takeshi sighed. "Starfleet Command, this is Captain Takeshi Yamato, XO, USS _Ra Cailum_. Come in, please."

Static filled the comms for a moment. "Starfleet Command, this is _Ra Cailum_."

" _…_ Ra Cailum _, this is San Francisco Presidio, Starfleet Command. State your status._ "

"About as well as can be expected," Takeshi replied. "We're just finishing up here before moving on to our next stop, and the reinforcements you sent have joined up with us."

" _We noticed, Captain: you weren't supposed to be promoted until the fleet arrived._ " And as Ron was pulling what Sisko pulled with Worf, with Takeshi living part-time on the _Firestorm_ , it meant he was going to be the XO of the _Ra Cailum_ for the rest of his career.

He could live with that. It was easier that way.

"We'll send over our mission reports now. Hopefully they can help you figure out some of the intricacies of the Wormhole Drive while we keep trying to get back to you."

" _Understood. The President has also confirmed Admiral Pinkerton's promotion to Fleet Admiral._ "

"We're also transmitting designs our new allies are providing for the fleet."

" _Understood,_ " came the reply. " _Good luck to you all out there._ "

"Thanks," Takeshi replied.

" _Starfleet Command out._ "

* * *

Purging was not easy, Hayate mused.

Political stupidity forced her to do Hunt's dirty work, but the Federation needed the Commonwealth as an ally to supply them with technology and starship designs.

Luckily, she was practically born and raised in the world of black ops, her parents working for Section 31 under her 'uncle' Gil Graham, who took her in after they died on a mission. She had entered the organization as soon as she was old enough and had passed Starfleet Academy training, and had risen through the ranks to the point where she commanded Special Operations Section 6. She knew what kinds of dirty deeds needed doing, when they needed it. And she had loyal subordinates to help her in that task.

And Ron… tolerated Section 31.

Oh, she was sure he would tear them apart if he wanted to.

The Klingons, the Romulans, the Delta Quadrant, the Iconians: the list of shit in THEIR universe he'd gone up against and wiped out went on and on.

Section 31 would simply take longer. But he would wipe them out nonetheless.

So she and the rest of her organization counted their lucky stars and hoped to stay in his good graces for a VERY long time. And as Ron was effectively immortal due to the implants…

Well, hoping and praying was all they could do.

Luckily the _Examia_ was one of her most powerful ships, with the most space for crew, as well. She'd brought along her best and brightest operatives, and her personal elite agents, who collectively called themselves the 'Wolkenritter', and she had _that_ system aboard for if she needed to bring down the sledgehammer.

While her most dangerous weapon was her own superior officer, he couldn't be in five places at once.

"So, how many people do we have to deal with?"

"An organization called the Knights of Genetic Purity, the Drago-Kazov Pride, the Templars, Sid Berry, who looks FAR too similar to Q for my liking…"

"Really?"

"Yes, ma'am. Fucking clone if I didn't know any better."

"Right," Hayate replied, looking over the profiles. "Well, we're going to have a busy week of it, may as well get started."

* * *

The USS _Valley Forge_ was an old starship.

The _Valley Forge_ was crippled during the Dominion War, needing a total reconstruction thanks to the Cardassian automated weapons platforms.

She came out the better for it though, and now she was used for intelligence work, like right now.

The _Excelsior_ -Class heavy cruiser hovered near the border between the Pyrians and the new Commonwealth, waving the flag until the High Guard was back on its' feet.

That being said, her captain wasn't exactly the best suited for border patrol: she wasn't Ayame Pinkerton.

"Captain, a starship just came out of slipstream. It's a Pyrian Cruiser."

"What are they doing here? Hail them."

The cruiser didn't respond, simply firing at the _Valley Forge_ , the continuous plasma beam impacting the shields.

"What the fuck?!"

"Helm, evasive maneuvers, weapons, aim to disable! Comms, get me Admiral Hayate!"

The Pyrians continued to fire, even firing AG mass packets at the _Valley Forge_ , which impacted the shields before a blue tetryon beam tore off one of the cruiser's 'fingers', followed by a squadron of Tholian Widow-Class fighters firing at the cruiser with thermionic torpedoes and tetryon cannons.

"Tholians! What?!"

"Captain, I have the Admiral."

"On my tac screen, please!"

Hayate appeared on the captain's chair mounted screen. " _What is it, Captain?"_

"Admiral, we were just attacked by Pyrians, but then Tholians came out of nowhere and started attacking the Pyrians!"

" _Really? Interesting. Keep out of their way._ "

"Admiral?"

" _If the Tholians are attacking the Pyrians, they're only helping the Commonwealth by attacking the Pyrians._ "

"And if the Pyrians attack again?"

" _Deter them. I'll consult with Pinkerton. Until then, I want regular checks by the hour. Hayate out."_

* * *

"Leave them out of it and tell the Tholian ambassador if they attack Commonwealth targets, I'll be tearing their heads off."

Blunt, to the point and honest. Pinkerton at its' finest.

" _Understood,_ " Hayate informed. " _As far as I can tell from reports, either the Tholians are helping us from the shadows, or they're active in this universe and have some sort of conflict with the Pyrians._ "

"I don't care. I'll get in contact with Command and tell them to tell the Tholians to leave the Commonwealth alone. Or I'll do to them what I threatened to do to the Founders, the Iconians AND the Prophets."

Ron was known for three things: building things fast, blowing things up fast and threatening people with extinction when they did something stupid.

" _Understood. Yagami out._ " The channel closed.

Ron closed the channel. "Takeshi, report to my ready room. We have something to talk about."

" _Understood, boss,_ " Takeshi replied. " _I'll be there ASAP._ "

While they continued the same system after they met up with the fleet, it was highly irregular. Ron had to confirm it with Starfleet Command before they could continue with it.

The doors to his ready room opened, Takeshi entering the room without bothering to ring the chime. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes. It's about your position on this ship."

Takeshi nodded. "We need to confirm it with Command, right?" he asked.

"Yes. We can't keep doing this. We're not DS9: we can't just let you keep jumping from ship to ship just because you want to stay with your family and command a destroyer-class ship. Either you transfer off or Command approves it. Speaking of which, we're due to get a comm link from Command in a few minutes."

"Right," Takeshi replied, settling in to wait. He really hoped they approved it - he figured Luna would move with him, and while he wasn't sure about Larcei, she was old enough to make her own decisions. The main thing he was worried about, though, was the paperwork, the bane of his existence.

The lights dimmed before the computer toned in. " _It is the scheduled contact time. Do you wish to open a channel_?"

"Yes, computer."

" _Name and rank for confirmation and retinal scan_."

"Pinkerton, Fleet Admiral Ronald Peter Albert, serial number SD-7891-8816-DA7M. Open channel to the office of Fleet Admiral Jorel Quinn."

The computer scanned his retina, before stating, " _Identity confirmed. Opening channel._ "

The emblem of the Great Seal appeared before Quinn's face appeared on the monitor. " _Ronald._ "

"Admiral Quinn."

" _You don't have to call me that now, Pinkerton: we're the same rank._ "

"Force of habit and you're chief of staff. We're here to talk about my first officer's situation."

" _Is he there with you?_ "

Takeshi leaned into view of the monitor. "Here, sir," he replied.

" _Commander, I appreciate your situation. But the great experiment was a complete failure. The losses of the_ Yamato _, the_ Enterprise _-D and the_ Odyssey _forced us to abandon the ideas of civilians on starships. But the Admiral does need an aid._ "

"He's my XO, not my aide."

" _We'll be setting up a new department, Ron. And you will be in charge of it. Takeshi Yamato, I will confirm your promotion to captain as well as your position as second in command of both the_ Ra Cailum _and commander of the USS_ Firestorm _. Just limit the jumps using the transporters._ "

Takeshi let out a mental sigh of relief. He wouldn't get stuck with the paperwork after all. "Thank you, sir," he said.

" _Congratulations on becoming the head of the new Department of Multiversal Exploration, Admiral. I expect reports every day._ "

"If possible, sir. Be realistic."

" _I know, but ideally, daily reports would be grand. Quinn out._ " The great seal reappeared.

"You know that as my XO of the new department, commanding the _Firestorm_ AND being the _Ra Cailum_ 's XO will increase your paperwork count."

"No, it won't."

"Yes, it will. And I am NOT doing it. You WILL be doing the paperwork. Whether you like it or not. You're a Starfleet officer and you're not dodging it just because you hate it."

Takeshi sighed. He'd need to get a secretary just to keep it at manageable levels. "Yes, sir," he said.

He turned to leave. "And no, you don't get a secretary."

Takeshi looked back. "Ron, come on—"

"You're a captain. Captain ranked officers can deal with their load of paperwork: I did most of yours AND mine in a day. Admirals have to sign thousands of reports daily. It's time you learned that being in Starfleet isn't all fun, games, flying around a starship and scientific research. 80% of the job is mind-numbingly boring paperwork. You've dodged that for most of your career. No longer."

Takeshi sighed again. "Understood, sir," he said.

He knew Ron wasn't doing this to be an asshole.

He was being an asshole about it, but not intentionally: regulations gave paperwork that was O-6 level, meaning captain's eyes-only.

And Ron told him the first day that almost ALL of his paperwork was meant for just him. Takeshi could take comfort in one thing.

While Ron had increased his paperwork count (and that would be the he-has-to-do-it count) by double, Quinn had increased Ron's by a factor of ten.

"This is why I didn't want to get promoted past Lieutenant."

"This is why I didn't want to be promoted to Admiral. At least now you don't have an excuse to dodge it."

Takeshi sighed again. "I guess I don't," he said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I should probably go see the officers I've picked for _Firestorm_ duty, including my wife. I have some promotions of my own to hand out.

Ron nodded, faintly grinning.

Takeshi knew why.

Ron had gotten his revenge for all the paperwork Takeshi had ever dumped on him.

* * *

Commander Lunamaria Yamato huffed. "Tried to warn you the day you did it. I told you he'd find out and I told you he would get his revenge. But you did not listen."

"Is this your way of saying I told you so?"

"This is my way of saying 'you got caught and now you have to deal with the fact that you HAVE to do your paperwork'. You knew you had to do it the minute you joined the Academy. …Right?"

"I knew I'd have some paperwork to do, no matter what," Takeshi replied. "But I never realized it could get that bad. I learned in the Academy just how much of a Demon paperwork was. When I graduated and became an Ensign, you might have heard the sigh of relief I made when I found out just how _little_ paperwork I had to do at that rank."

"And you expected no more when you got promoted to Lieutenant?"

"…Yeah."

"Too bad, Takeshi. I hate to say it, but if you want to excel, you have to deal with the paperwork that comes with the rank. You're a Captain now. That means you have to deal with the paperwork that comes with commanding a starship. You unintentionally tortured Ron for almost three years by giving him three-fifths of your paperwork. So don't be surprised that he's enjoying the fact that your free time has been virtually destroyed."

Takeshi sighed. "Right," he said. "Still, no reason I can't spread the misery - I'm promoting several officers of the _Firestorm_ crew. If I have to suffer the extra paperwork, well, I won't be the only one."

"Well… no. most of your paperwork is level-10 security clearance only."

"That's captains and above."

"Now you know why they don't have aides."

"This is insanity. How does Ron get anything done with that secure bullshit?!"

"Because he knew how to handle it and had to learn fast." She handed him a PADD. "And now he expects you to learn the same way you forced him to learn."

Takeshi sobbed. "I'm going to go talk to Ron."

"He won't change anything!"

"Doesn't hurt to try!"

* * *

Ron continued to work on PADDs as he hmmed. "Well, Takeshi, you DID bring this on yourself. The paperwork increases incrementally by rank."

Takeshi sighed. "I guess I did," he said. "I'd hoped to have the rest of my crew suffer with me by promoting them and giving _them_ more paperwork, too, but…" he glared. "You told them to dump it on me if that happened, didn't you?"

"If that's all—"

"Ron, you can't do this."

"I can and I will. I'm still your superior officer. So if I say that paperwork is yours and no one else's, it's yours and no one else's."

"Have mercy!"

"You know my French has only marginally improved since I began seeing Annette."

Takeshi faceplamed. "Ron, I am a pilot!"

"Should've stayed at Ensign, then."

Oh, he was playing THAT game, was he?

"You bastard, this is torture. Ron, I have better things to do then do paperwork!"

Ron gave him a dangerous look. "So do I. Didn't stop you from dumping most of it on me simply because I do it faster. But I'm not needlessly cruel, unlike you. I'm promoting Lunamaria's security clearance to level-10. She can suffer with you. But if you try the shit you pulled with me on ANYONE, I will have your commission in a matter of seconds and have you _permanently_ grounded with no access to a starship. Am I clear?"

Takeshi nodded. "Crystal, sir," he said.

"Good. Dismissed."

Takeshi rubbed his temples as he stood up. "I will say this about being an Admiral." He looked back at Ron. "Gives you the authority to do whatever the hell you want. But it's too easy to abuse. Captain's a better position. Just enough authority, more than enough freedom."

Takeshi nodded. "Yeah, I can understand that," he said. He didn't say it out loud for fear of invoking Murphy, but he hoped he never got promoted to Admiral, and would refuse any such promotion if offered.

Ron waved him off, returning to his paperwork. Takeshi noticed it was all on one PADD.

Maybe that was his secret. He'd try it.

* * *

Jaden sat in his quarters alone, staring up at the ceiling. Sonja was bust with the overhaul (doing what work she could being nearly 5 months pregnant) while Nena was off on a check-up with Rutia, giving him time to… think. More specifically, think about the only SOB he's ever met more crazy than him.

Everyone was right… he was attracted to crazy, and he was _the_ craziest person in the fleet, with only him, Sonja, Nena, Cassie and Annette being anywhere close to rivaling him.

He loved that SOB… yet he was a guy, and both he and Jaden _knew_ each other weren't gay. So that was out of the question… unless he did _it_.

The gender bending sex-change.

He let out a groan of frustration. He was, surprisingly, on the fence about this topic… he wanted to be with Ron, yet he still loved Sonja and Nena… and then there was Cassie and Sonja _plus_ his future kids on the way…

But the way he just _lost it_ when he thought Ron was gone for good… the relief he felt when he was back to normal…

Jaden slapped his face. "Ugh… fucking dreams…" he groaned, putting a pillow over his head as he tried _not_ to think of Ron.

But he couldn't.

He just imagined being with him.

Being Jade Takeo. Being Jade Pinkerton. Being with Ron, showing him the love he deserved for the near-decade of suffering at the hands of the Borg, the losses he endured…

He almost fell into a dream of being Jade before the lights kicked on, Jaden having set them to flash to maximum illumination if he was close to falling asleep.

But that didn't stop his mind from running around.

"Just say it."

Jaden shot out of bed, seeing Ron sitting in a chair. "Ron?"

"I'm not Ron, dumbass: I'm YOU." Jaden buhed before 'Ron' rolled his eyes sighing. "I am a manifestation of your frustrations, something your subconscious needs to voice. And frankly, the rest of you is going NUTS from you bottling it up."

"…oh for fuck's sake…" He groaned, facepalming. "If I'm seeing this kind of shit, I may have to start sleeping in those UNSC Cryo pods to avoid dreaming and hallucinating… "

"That's not going to help you at all." The hallucination said. "You have to face your problems. Say it. You love Ron. And I'm your fucking subconscious, so when I say it, there's no avoiding it! You. Are. In. Love. With. Ron. Gay you may not be, but love knows no sexual orientation and he is your soulmate."

" _You_ shut the hell up." He growled. "It's more complicated than that and you know it."

"Is it?" Jaden turned away, growling. "You're in love with him. And these feelings aren't going to just go away if you ignore them!"

"Fuck you!"

"I AM you! I'm just the voice you want to ignore, the feelings you don't want to acknowledge! JUST FUCKING SAY IT!"

"SHUT UP!" He ran into the bathroom, splashing water onto his face, shaking his head as he tried to think clearly. By the time he looked back… the hallucination was gone.

He groaned as he rubbed his forehead. "I _need_ some fucking sleep… " he groaned, moving back to bed.

Maybe he'll get lucky and _not_ have another damned erotic dream…

"Say it."

"FUCK YOU!"

" _JADEN, STOP FUCKING LOSING YOUR MIND DOWN THERE! I CAN HEAR YOU THROUGH THE EPS CONDUITS_!"

"FUCK YOU, RON!"

" _YOU FIRST_!"

He ripped off the combadge and flung it away as he crashed into bed, covering his face and ears as he tried to ignore the rest of the world around him.

* * *

Two weeks had passed, the task force finally ready to leave.

And Ron was downing headache pills to the point where most people would be dying of overdose.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"Jaden keeps SCREAMING at things. He says I'M insane. He's screaming at shit that ain't there!"

"FUCK YOU RON!"

"Doesn't help that I can hear him through the EPS network."

"The heck's going on with him?" Takeshi asked, as he stared at his PADD as he scribbled something down into it. "Has he seen Rutia on it?"

"No, he keeps screaming that he's seeing me when I ain't there," he said. "Like I'm trying to make him confess to something, I have no fucking clue what though."

Takeshi blinked, before groaning. "Oh, great, he's got to be thinking about _that_ issue, and it's driving him nuts."

"What issue?"

"…Never mind. Riza, please tell me the wormhole drive is working."

"It's ready to go on my brother's command."

"The word is given. Get us the fuck home, Riza."

The fleet entered warp, then entered the wormhole seconds later.

Off to the next stop on their journey through the multiverse.

* * *

 **Takeshi Yamato: And with that, we are done in Andromeda.**

 **117Jorn: And Jaden is losing his goddamned mind.**

 **Ron the True Fan: And I'm entertained by the whole goddamn thing! Though we'll have to deal with the Jaden romantic issue eventually.**

 **Ruby: I hope it- *rattling within the vents* …what was that?**

 **Weiss: Are rats in the vents again? I thought we took care of those… *large thud is heard* …that's bigger than a Rat I think…**

 **Ron the True Fan: …Anyone hearing voices?**

 **Blake: …Fuck.**

 **Yang: What?**

 **Ron the True Fan: (Pulls out flamethrower) Arm yourselves. And don't aim for the head.**

 **117Jorn: What are you- *figure drops from vent screeching* KILL IT WITH FIRE!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Read on, people! We'll deal with these fucks and catch up next time!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	48. Chapter 48

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

Once more the fleet dropped out of the void between universes, appearing before yet another planet in a new universe.

The _Miranda_ -Class ships in the fleet began to move out, but that wasn't what Jaden Takeo was thinking about. He was still thinking of Ronald Pinkerton, now Fleet Admiral of what was now being called the Odyssey Fleet. He was _finally_ able to get some sleep, yet once more he was plagued by dreams involving them with either of them as a girl… and it only made things worse as usual.

' _This… is getting insane…_ ' he groaned, facepalming.

He had enough. His mind wanted him to consciously admit it? Fine.

"FINE! YOU WANT ME TO JUST SAY IT?! I'LL SAY IT! I LOVE RONALD PINKERTON! HAPPY NOW?!"

A thud was heard on one of the neighboring walls. Guess they didn't want to hear him yelling.

Well, too bad. His subconscious finally forced him to admit he was romantically interested in Ron.

There was still ONE problem.

Neither one was gay.

' _…to switch or not to switch…_ ' he thought with a groan. ' _Well… it's gonna be an interesting day…_ '

" _Commander Takeo, please report to the bridge._ "

Speak of his romantic interest. "On my way." Jaden got out of his bed.

Long day, indeed.

* * *

"Cassie, tell me you're joking. The last thing we need is one of those."

"I'm sorry, Ron, but it is one."

The turbolift opened before Jaden exited. "What's going on?"

Ron gestured to the viewscreen, showing a massive armada of ships and a fuckton of debris.

"…so we popped in by some ship debris field," He said shrugging, "So what? If anything we might be able to scavenge some stuff from them if they have stuff we need."

"We're picking up traces of elerium."

Jaden's eyes widened. "…oh, shit."

Ron nodded. "Them. I'm preparing a party, you're going to be in charge—"

"Ron…" Cassie pressed a button to display something.

It was a birdlike starship, aggressively styled.

A _Scimitar_ -Class warbird. And one that had taken a beating.

"Shit. How'd that get here?"

"No idea," Takeshi replied. "Something tells me we won't like the answer, though."

Jaden looked at the warbird, seeing massive amounts of damage: carbon scoring, hull breaches and the like. "Something beat the shit out of that ship. Look at those hits."

"Those were caused by type 12 phasers," Takeshi explained. "And look there, at the front of the main hull." Indeed, there looked to be a large piece of debris _embedded_ in the hull.

"You sure?"

"Those are type 12 phaser impacts. The 10s and 11s used by _Galaxy_ and _Defiant_ -Class ships leave a different pattern. Those were designed to burn through armor plating."

"Ron, could this be the original _Scimitar_?"

Ron shook his head. "No impact damage to the hangar bay. The _Enterprise_ -E destroyed that using her saucer section and without counting the ramming, no damage impacts got through."

The ship rotated to show more damage. It looked like the interior of a starship, or most of one, embedded in the starboard warp nacelle.

"Ron… that looks an awful lot like a—"

" _Sovereign_ -Class starship. That's the _Laehval_. It can only be Sela's flagship."

"Yep," Takeshi replied. "Meaning that's the front of the original _Ra Cailum_ embedded in the hull."

Jaden looked at the starship.

Part of the saucer section was still exposed, the letters of the registry still visible.

C-945 was on the surviving hull plating.

And Jaden had looked through the registries. The 945XX ships only had 100 starships.

And of those one hundred, only one of them was _Sovereign_ -Class.

This was the USS _Ra Cailum_ , Nova Charlie Charlie Nine Four Five One Seven.

Ron smiled sadly. "Hello, old friend. I thought I'd never see you again."

"Damn…" Jaden muttered. "You fucked that ship _up_ Ron… Sela must've really pissed you off…"

"We abandoned ship after she rammed us."

"She RAMMED your ship?!"

"And then she tried to use the thalaron pulse weapon on our asses. THAT was what blew up the _Ra Cailum_. I pissed _her_ off, not the other way around." Jaden looked at the remains of the old _Sovereign_ and the _Laehval_.

The _Scimitar_ -Class ship was 98% intact, sans minor hull breaches and the fucked up starboard nacelle. The _Ra Cailum…_

At least 5 decks were still more or less intact, but there was no way they could rebuild her.

"Ok, I'll take Sonja onto the warbird and—"

Ron shook his head. "No. I'll lead the mission to those ships. The old _Ra Cailum_ was my responsibility. She still is. You take a crew over to the Ethereal transport."

"You got it," Jaden nodded. "I'll bring some of the XCOM personnel with me, pretty sure Annette'll be more than happy to kill more of the bastards."

"Get her hurt, I hurt you."

"That was implied when I said I'd take her along."

* * *

 **Ethereal cargo ship**

* * *

The ship was dark, dusty and deserted.

At least it seemed so to the away team that beamed in.

There was nothing on board. And Jaden did not like it.

He powered up a flashlight as he scanned the area. "Well… while I am glad we're not immediately being swarmed… this doesn't feel right… " he muttered, glancing at the Psionic Annette. "You sense anything? 'Cause my Innovator abilities got nothing."

"Nothing living."

"That does NOT comfort me at all, Annette."

The captain's newer girlfriend pulled out her phaser rifle, activating it. "It's not supposed to. Something is _wrong_ with this ship."

Jaden gave her a look. "It's an Ethereal ship. There's ALWAYS something wrong."

"Not THAT kind of wrong. Something worse." She looked down the darkened hall. "MUCH worse. Like… corrupted. Twisted."

The MS pilot groaned, preparing his own rifle. "Just another day of crazy for the USS _Ra Cailum_ …" he muttered as they proceeded forward.

* * *

The halls were darkened with soot. The ship was in ruins.

But Ron knew the halls of the _Ra Cailum_ of old like the back of his hand.

"It pains me to see the old girl like this. Fucking Sela."

He was near a section that led to the warbird's central body, so he just slid out into the _Laehval_.

"My ship now, you fucking smug—"

Skittering was heard within the warbird's corridors. "Oh, fuck no. If the Elachi are on this ship, things will burn and DIE, I SWEAR it."

He kept his head on a swivel as he looked around for the source, before he thought he heard something within a vent. He moved closer…

An inhuman roar echoed as a humanoid figure leaped out of the vent towards Ron, with blades for arms.

"Oh, fuck."

It screeched, jumping at him. Ron rolled and jumped back into the _Ra Cailum._

Ron KNEW these things: the Borg ran into them 500 years ago.

So he wanted to ambush the damn thing, as he knew it would climb up.

But it didn't. He waited two minutes, but the damn thing was shaking like it was scared.

"Oh, COME ON! You bullrushed at me on the warbird, but you won't cross over to my old wreck of a ship?!"

The freak whimpered and backed away.

"Oh, Jesus Christ, it's scared of my ship." He fired his phaser at the reanimated freak of nature, dismembering it before tapping his combadge. "Jaden, we have a… Problem."

* * *

"Yeah I NOTICED!" Jaden yelled, phaser on full auto and spitting bolts like it was going out of style. "WE HAVE A LITERAL FUCKTON OF COMPANY!"

The boarding team unleashed a hail of phaser fire upon the charging Ethereals… yet at the same time, they weren't Ethereals. Similar, yes, but they looked… dead, and then given blades for arms.

"At least I have an idea what universe we're in now!" Jaden called out, slotting several bolts into a pair of what were- formerly- mutons.

"Really, what?"

"Its another universe from a game back from your world Annette!" He said, "These aliens got turned into Necromorphs! It's Dead Space!"

Two sectoids crawled out of a vent, but they were VERY mutated, with long clawed fingers and had mouths.

Filled with shark-like teeth.

"Oh, that's just WRONG."

"You want wrong?! Beam over to the _Laehval_ : my boyfriend is probably head-deep in Romulan versions of these things!"

"Probably " Jaden snarled, pulling back with the rest of the group. " _Ra Calium_ , we're getting overwhelmed here! We could use some reinforcements!"

" _Copy that._ " Corpsa replied. " _Dispatching team STRQ."_

That was a mistake and Jaden _knew_ it. Summer was still recovering and hadn't even rebuilt her weapon while Raven…

Raven had problems and if the necromorphs were moving, that meant there were Markers.

And Markers equalled Marker signal. Marker signal equalled insanity. And Raven was in the same boat as Isaac Clarke.

"Negative Corpsa! Don't sent STRQ!" Jaden called back, "Send RWBY, CFVY or JNPR but for fuck's sake don't send STRQ!"

"Too late: they're already in the buffer." Four showers of light deposited the team in question. FUCK, his life sucked!

"So what's the-"

"SHUT UP!" Jaden shouted, causing all four to blink. "Whatever you do, _stay. Fucking. Focused._ We're dealing with aliens that _REALLY_ like to fuck with people's heads due to signals from devices called Markers! So whatever you do, if you start seeing crazy-ass shit that _you know_ can't be real, STOP. Alright?"

Raven drew her sword, hacking a necromorph in half before a necro-sectoid's head began to glow, using a combination of the sectoid's psionics and the marker signal to get into Raven's head.

It worked as she fell to the deck as the rest of the team engaged the enemy.

"Mommy?" Raven looked up, finding a young Yang standing where the sectoid was, blinking innocently.

"This isn't real. It…can't."

"Why did you leave, mommy? Daddy and I were worried."

"I… I had… to… " Raven muttered, she tried to think it wasn't real, but… Yang was right there… she looked so… real…

"Raven!" Qrow shouted, unable to reach her due to a pair of nectoids. "FOCUS!"

"Mommy, come back."

A phaser beam impacted Yang, vaporizing her. Raven looked at Jaden, who held his phaser rifle out. "Sorry. But you need this."

"…You just murdered my daughter."

"Yang is fine! She's on board the _Ra Cailum_! Focus!"

"N-no…nononono… " Raven muttered as she just froze up.

'"Fucking fuck… " Jaden muttered, " _Ra Cailum_ , beam Raven back over there… and have Yang over there too to prove she's alive."

" _…why?_ "

"Because she just got mind-fucked into thinking I killed Yang."

" _Fuck me. Locking on and energizing. Sorry, Commander._ "

"You didn't know, Corpie, not your fault."

"Oh, well, you could've tried harder." Jaden barely registered the voice of Ron through the combadge: he knew it was the Marker.

Ron wasn't the mocking type for shit like that and he was busy.

"Okay, for the record I _know_ you're the Marker trying to fuck with my head." He muttered, as he continued down the halls. "That shit won't work on me."

"Oh, that's entertaining. You think you can handle this. There are no minds that can withstand us. We are hungry, Jaden Takeo. And we are coming. And you WILL feed us and MAKE US WHOLE!"

Tau Volantis. They were in orbit of Tau Volantis. The debris field in orbit was the Sovereign Colonies fleet.

Meaning that moon was THE Moon.

"Oh shit…" He turned towards Qrow. "Yo Drunkie!"

"Don't call me that!"

"Whatever, call Ron and the _Ra Cailum_ that I know where we are now… Tau Volantis, and that moon is a Brethren Moon - aka a Giant, frozen fucking Necromorph!"

"Why don't you tell him?"

"Because the fuckers are trying to get into _my_ head now, and they're using Ron's voice!"

"Oh, THAT'S fun."

* * *

Ron hacked a Romulan necromorph in half as he walked through the halls of the _Laehval_.

"Pinkerton to _Ra Cailum_ : I need an engineering crew over here to repair the singularity core and the thalaron pulse generators."

" _We'll send them over, though message from Jaden: we know where we are now,_ " Corpsa said. " _We're at a planet called Tau Volantis. And it appears the moon over there is a giant Necromorph._ "

"Well, that's a better name than biological aberration 895." Ron muttered, slicing another creature in half. "Wait, why didn't he tell me himself?"

" _Because something called a Marker is trying to fuck with his head… using your voice._ "

"You're shitting me."

 _"Why aren't you being affected?"_

"The same reason Blake won't be: Borg implants. Why the hell do you think our brains are FILLED with implants? One is enough to link to the collective. The rest are safeguards against shit like the signal."

" _Right, I'll tell him._ " Corpsa said. " _Engineers are heading over now, Lily suggested giving them those old mind shields XCOM built to fend off Ethereal psionics, she thinks they can be reused to block out the Marker signals._ "

"Reconfigure them to a pulse frequency of 487.98."

 _"That was oddly specific, sir."_

"The Borg ran into these assholes back in our universe five centuries ago and _exterminated_ them. They knew what to do."

 _"And that explains everything. Sending instructions."_

* * *

"The Borg ran into these things back in your universe?!" Nena asked as she helped hand out the mind shields to the engineering crew. "FUCK, what haven't you run into?!"

"I've lost count," Sonja said, sitting down as she adjusted each mind shield with the proper frequency. "We've run into so many crazy things it's pointless to keep track of."

"Seriously?"

"We have two captains that fuck with godlike beings every time they encounter them. Trust me, it's rather mundane by now."

"So, what next?" Nena asked. "We repair the thalaron cannons on the _Laehval_ and blast that moon?"

"It's not that simple, Nena." Sonja shook her head "Corpsa REALLY fucked up that ship: it's the only reason we're still alive. If the _Ra Cailum_ hadn't slammed into that warp nacelle, it would have fired correctly instead of blowing up the EPS network and we would be dead."

"…Shit… " Nena muttered, "So that means not only do we need to fix the nacelle of this thing, but we need to fix its entire EPS network? …that's gonna be a royal bitch to fix… "

"And we're probably going to be doing it under fire. Just be sure to have a weapon near you at all times and prepare for some gruesome shit."

"Ron is going to be on board: we'll be fine. As long as that signal doesn't do anything to the baby."

* * *

"Baby'll be FINE! It only affects dead tissue, not living!"

 _"You're sure?"_

Ron vaporized another Leaper, putting his sword on his shoulder. "Perfectly. The Borg might be total fucking assholes, but they know what they're doing, Sonja."

" _Alright. Engineering and escort team, beaming over."_

Sonja and a team of five engineers materialized, followed by two MACOs, and Noble Five and Six.

"Alright." One of the MACOs declared, hefting a Romulan Plasma flamethrower. "What needs roasting?"

"The undead versions of the shit we ran into back in the XCOM universe! Fire at will!"

* * *

"Oh, like that's going to help with your problems, Takeo." Jaden growled as an illusion of Ron entered his line of sight.

"Shut up." He muttered, vaporizing a group of Nectoid Commanders.

"I'm your insanity: I don't shut up. In fact, you're attracted to things crazier than you are. Like Ron."

"Fuck you."

"What's wrong, scared that he'll just shoot you out the airlock?"

"No, he's crazy - not a psychopath." Jaden said, then paused and reconsidered his choice of words. "…okay a _bit_ of a psychopath, but he doesn't kill his own friends and crewmen."

"But you're not his-"

"You _do_ realize I'm not gonna fall for this shit, right?" Jaden glared at the hallucination. "Your not gonna fuck my head over looking like Ron and trying to attack my self-esteem. It didn't work with the Marker-killer himself, it sure as hell ain't working on us."

Banging was heard when a bulkhead collapsed. The Marker illusion looked almost smug when the twisted forms of Chryssalids, rotted, mutated and all sorts of _fucked_ , burst through.

"You sure about that? They look very hungry."

"Well, fuck my life."

* * *

"So, we use the thalaron pulse to kill everything on this ship."

"Everything not protected, at least. Got a problem with that, Sonja?"

"Oh _hell_ no. As long as we get off before it fires, I'm _fine_ with purging this thing."

"YOU'RE THE REASON WHY WE HAVE NAPALM!" The flamethrower-happy MACO shouted.

"Nice to know our entire crew is made up of sociopaths." Noble Six commented.

"Well, I take the people with repressed anger and unleash them on the unsuspecting dumbasses that try to kill us for a reason."

"Because you're one of them?" Ron gave Sonja a twisted, insane grin.

"DAMN RIGHT I AM!" Ron unsheathed his sword. "TALLY HO!" The admiral charged forward, cackling.

"At least he's running into all of the undead."

At least the moon was still there. That meant Isaac hadn't come and generally fucked up that moon's day.

…That guy BELONGED on her engineering staff.

* * *

"I FUCKING HATE BUGS!" Jaden shouted, as he ran through the halls of the cargo ship to avoid the swarm of Necro-Chryssalids chasing after him. If he survived this, he was gonna have to come up with a better name for those demons.

"We can't hold these things off forever!"

"We don't need to! Send the ship into the atmosphere: we're all wearing suits rated for space so the _Ra Cailum_ can just beam us out!"

If they survived, that is.

* * *

 **117Jorn: In space… no one can hear you _scream_ … **

**Ron the True Fan: But Ron can.**

 **Ruby: Why does that not surprise me…**

 **Weiss: Because he is the most overpowered being in the known multiverse?**

 **Ron the True Fan: to a lesser degree. But there are bigger fish in the sea. Ron's just conventionally OP.**

 **117Jorn: In other words, he's not truly superhuman, but to everyone else he seems like it.**

 **Blake: and he puts his insanity to work against his enemies.**

 **Yang: Well, time to be a bitch because someone's got to say it. This arc is going to see the death of a major character. I just won't say who.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: I thought RWBY didn't know spoilers…**

 **117Jorn: Well it depends on how you say the term 'death'… find out next time everyone!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	49. Chapter 49

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

"Subspace distortion detected," Riza reported after a brief glance to the sensors. "I think we have company."

The ship was small, even compared to the ships used by the Commonwealth as couriers.

The ship's IFF IDed the ship as the USM _Eudora_.

And according to the files, on board that ship was a man as badass as their captain.

He survived a bloodbath on the USG _Ishimura_ , destroying a Marker by dropping a small continent on it.

He survived the fall of Titan Station, destroying _another_ Marker and getting out with his skin in one piece.

He was the Marker Killer, the creator of severed limbs, the destroyer of Unitologists' beliefs.

The one the Brethren Moons feared above all else.

The CEC engineer who only went by the name of Isaac Clarke.

"…Sonja's going to _love_ this." Corpsa smirked, "Well… may as well get ready to say hello."

* * *

 **USM _Eudora_**

* * *

The _Eudora_ had just dropped out of shockspace and already Isaac could tell this was going to end badly as the _Eudora_ barely dodged a piece of debris.

"ROSEN!"

"Hold on!"

The ship pitched down before righting itself, giving them a nice large view of a debris field.

"Christ, the place is a Junkyard…"

"More like a Graveyard…" John Carver muttered.

"Any sign of Ellie's ship?"

"I'm reading multiple transponders, but none of them are ours… According to the registry, they're Sovereign Colonies warships!"

"You serious? They'd be 200 years old!"

" _Attention, USM_ Eudora, _this is the Federation starship_ Ra Cailum. _Come to bearing 145 mark 78._ "

Norton looked at Isaac, who shrugged. "Got me."

" _We cleared out most of the mines. Get over here before the rest home in on your heat signature. And put Isaac Clarke on. We won't talk to Norton._ "

"Someone doesn't like you," Isaac muttered. "Not that I blame them." Norton growled, but stepped aside. "This is Isaac Clarke… who the hell am I speaking too?"

" _Commander Cassandra Ptolemy. Nice to meet you, Clarke. Portside airlock is clear. Bring her in._ " Rosen turned the _Eudora_ towards the coordinates, seeing a MASSIVE fleet of ships.

"Oh, shit." It's not like you can blame Carver for reacting like that.

The _Ra Cailum_ and her escorts were… intimidating. Ships of various different makes and design, all surrounding the one ship in question.

"I suggest we not keep them waiting," Isaac said to Norton, who scowled.

* * *

10 minutes later, Isaac mused about alien first contact.

He expected monsters trying to kill him. From his experience with the necromorphs, this is understandable.

But not a white-haired, blue-skinned woman with antennae sticking out of her head.

And was it a bad thing that she looked VERY attractive?

Anyway, she was wearing a uniform and had the disposition of a woman with whom not to fuck as she stood by the airlock. "Welcome aboard. Commander Corpsa zh'Kilon, tactical officer."

"It's… good to meet you miss-" Norton began, but was cut off as a weapon was shoved in his face.

"Not you, jackass - talking to the engineer." She growled. "I don't give a shit about you, ya damned traitor."

"…what?"

"You led the fucking unis here, your obsession with Ellie nearly resulted in the extinction of your entire fucking species and resulted in your own death before allowing a psychopathic religious fuck to turn off the only thing keeping a super-necromorph from siccing his 'brothers' on Earth."

Isaac had to laugh. "And how'd you know that?"

"Alternate universes: your adventures are well-documented, Isaac."

He had to test that. "Ok. What happened to Nolan Stross?"

"He took out Ellie's eye with a screwdriver and then tried to kill you with it before you stuck it in his head. Our captain is practically idolizing you for that."

…okay, that was freaky, accurate, and insane. "How the fuck-"

"We'll explain it all later, right now we're going to help you relocate your ex and her friends from the _Roanoke_."

* * *

Ron cackled as he walked the halls of the _Laehval_ with a flamethrower, singing VERY offkey.

And making the necromorphs kill themselves.

He's not a horrid singer when he does it, he's purposefully doing it offkey.

"Hey, Sonja, mind getting that pulse generator online? Running out of fuel here."

" _We're working on it!_ " Sonja replied, " _You KNOW the damage we did to her, Captain. EPS is fucked, we've gotta fix the whole thing across the ship! And these damn - one moment_ " *BLAM* " _Fuck they leave a mess… these fucking Necromorphs just won't leave us the fuck alone!_ "

"Thus why I want to pulse this fucking ship and kill them all. Get a power cell from the old girl and hook it into the generator."

 _"That won't work as well—"_

"I don't need the biogenic pulse weapon, Sonja, I want to flood the ship with thalaron radiation to kill every biological thing on this ship that isn't us."

 _"Our PSGs aren't rated for that!"_

Ron facepalmed. "They aren't rated for a direct, sustained weaponized pulse. They can handle the generator activating for 5 seconds. Christ, stop worrying about the baby."

" _Well excuse me for being fucking paranoid!_ " Sonja shouted, " _Give me a few minutes!_ "

 _BANG_!

Ron dropped the flamethrower and drew his sword. "You've got one."

A massive gorilla-like necromorph stomped down the hall.

"Well, you'll be fun to kill."

It slammed its' 'arms' on the deck, rushing at him.

* * *

Jaden officially hated these things.

"DIEDIEDIEDIEIDEIDIE!" He shouted as he continued to fire at the incoming swarm of N-Chryssalids. It was bad that they were quicker, and it was worse that they had thicker armor than the ones they've dealt with before. "COME ON YOU FUCKERS I AIN'T GOT ALL DAY!"

One Chryssalid dropped down from a Vent, practically atop of him as it took a bite into his shoulder. "MOTHERFUCKER!" He shouted as he pulled out a Tritanium knife and shoved it in the head of the creature, killing it.

He turned his attention back towards the others… but his vision began to blur, as a burning sensation began to grow from his shoulder… "…oh fuck… " he muttered, as he ran back as far as he could. " _R… Ra-Cailum_ I… I need out… out of here now!"

" _Aye, sir. Locking on._ " Jaden disappeared in a shower of light, reappearing in the _Ra Cailum's_ sickbay.

Rutia was just walking in, her uniform jacket barely done up.

"Christ, and AFTER my date with Jorge. Flay, get your ass down here: Jaden's hurt!"

She grabbed a tricorder and began scanning Jaden's wound. "Ok, this is bad. That poison's been heavily corrupted. Normal things won't—Jaden! STAY AWAKE! DO NOT FALL UNCONSCIOUS!"

"I'm… fuck'n… trying…" He groaned out, his vision burring out. "Can't… ugh…"

She looked at the tricorder readings again.

"You have got to be kidding me."

* * *

" _Yulanra to Pinkerton._ "

Ron kicked the Brute before tapping the combadge. "Pinkerton."

 _"Jaden's been bit by a necromorph Cryssalid. It's infected him with the necromorph virus and the venom requires a unique cure."_

"Can you save him?"

 _"Well, yeah, I can, but—"_

"Then I don't care. He'll be fine."

" _Will you just-_ " He shut off the comm as he walked over the Brute corpse. "Sonja, how's it coming?"

" _This takes time, you can't change the laws…_ " there was a short pause. " _Wait, nevermind you can - it's done but it won't hold for long!_ "

"Jaden's been attacked by a necromorph: poisoned. He'll be fine, though."

Sonja paused. When she spoke again, her voice was dangerously low. _"WHY are you telling me this?!"_

"Motivation. Faster you work, sooner you see Jaden."

She cursed in about every known language. _"Blackmailing bastard!"_

Ron grinned as the lights kicked in. "You may fire when ready. PSGs to maximum."

He turned towards another group of Necromorphs that summoned enough bravery to charge towards him… but a wave of green energy pulsed throughout the ship, and moments later the creatures disintegrated into ashes, screaming.

"Say what you will about thalaron radiation, it is VERY good at pest control."

"Ra Cailum _to Pinkerton: the_ Eudora _has arrived._ "

Ron grinned. So, he was going to team up with the Moon Killer himself.

"Beam me over to the _Roanoke_."

This was going to be FUN!

* * *

Isaac was given two minutes to get a RIG on, then he was… 'beamed' over to the _Roanoke_ with Carver and Norton.

While he wasn't happy with the latter, it was a no choice thing: the rest of the _Eudora's_ crew were repair or pilots.

Noncombatants. But they WERE getting reinforced by someone quote 'as badass as he was'. Isaac didn't get it.

He was about to.

He heard a noise around a corner, as he prepped his plasma cutter. And a few moments he spun around the corner, weapon raised… at some guy wearing the Starfleet uniform. "So… you Clark?"

"…yeah," Isaac said, lowering his gun. "You?"

"Ronald Pinkerton. Captain of the _Ra Cailum_. Nice to finally meet you. Only person I know of badass enough to kick his own insanity's ass."

Isaac raised an eyebrow. "You know about what happened on the Sprawl?"

"Clarke, I know a LOT. By the way… you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"High-pitched hum, lower millihertz range." Isaac looked at Ron questioningly. "I'm enhanced. Long story."

"Oh… kay…" Isaac replied. "Can't really hear anything, though."

"Figured. It's coming from one of the pods. Anything operating in that range?"

Isaac thought about it. "Old stasis unit, maybe. But something running that long would have to be jury-rigged…"

Isaac facepalmed.

SCAF tech was _designed_ to run on low power. Even a stasis unit would last forever on a small low-volt battery.

"Well, let's see who's sleeping." Ron said as he and Isaac continued towards the stasis units. As they walked, they noticed one pod that was all burnt up with a corpse inside it, and a second one which was sealed shut.

"This looks suspicious."

"But delicious!" They all looked at Ron. "What? I've been declared legally insane by hundreds of people. I'm just staying in character. And I had to complete the rhyme somehow."

"…You are fucked in the head."

"See, even YOU agree! Pop her open and let's kill the undead!"

Isaac shrugged and proceeded to find the release for the pod. It opened with a hiss of pressurized air, releasing a wave of cold.

He opened it all the way and Ron looked inside.

He blinked.

"Huh."

The lid was kicked off, slamming Ron into the bulkhead before Isaac was punched in the face and Carver was sent to the floor.

The attacker was wearing a full and intact RIG, helmet covering the head.

But the attacker wasn't a Fodder. The RIG's health monitor was 79% full, so the one wearing it was alive and well.

For someone 200 years old.

"Well, it's not often people manage to surprise me." Ron commented, pushing the lid off himself. "But I often survive the surprises anyway. Now, you die."

Norton fired his gun at the attacker, who dodged the shot, followed through and kicked the bastard in the head, snagging his weapon as he fell.

"You're not supposed to be here."

Roars were heard down the hall. "Fucking great, they're still alive?"

"Technically, lady, they're undead. And why aren't you going nuts?"

"I AM nuts. It's the only reason the Marker signal hasn't made me kill myself!"

She shrugged. "Good enough for me."

Ron's blade flashed out, bisecting a necromorph that was charging at him from behind. "I hate zombies. Well, killing time!"

The horde rushed at Ron and the unknown SCAF soldier, but the pair were VERY skilled at killing, as she used her bullpup rifle to maximum effect while he hacked and slashed the Slashers and Pukers apart.

Isaac, groaning as he recovered from the attack, noticed something about the two.

Ruthless, unyielding and relentless.

They were FAR too similar for comfort.

The woman literally grabbed one Slasher, ripping off its arms and then using them as her own weapons as she cut apart other Necromorphs with them like a pair of swords. "THIS IS FOR MY BOYFRIEND YOU UNDEAD FUCKS!"

The two continued to dominate and destroy the enemy until they ran.

They ran SO far away.

On the other hand, they took so much terrible, terrible damage, there was no way in hell they'd ever recover.

"So, Earth government?"

"Those two are, the other guy's an engineer, I'm… with someone else? What about you, SCAF? Got a name?

The woman checked the air. Satisfied the air wasn't too poisonous, she unlocked her helmet as it slid open, revealing a blond-haired beauty underneath, causing Ron to blink. "Veronica Pinkerton, Sovereign Colonies… so how long has it been?"

"Well, for one, my name is Ronald Pinkerton. And you look like me. As for time, it's 2514."

"FUCK! I thought it was only going to be a few days!"

"And what were you planning to do, sis?"

Veronica glared at Ron. "Just because we share the same name—"

"Actually, we share the same DNA." Ron pulled out his tricorder. "It's set to active scan. And the readings it's taking of YOU are… interesting."

"…fuck, 200 years and we got _that_ kind of tech?" Veronica muttered.

" _We_ don't— _they_ do." Isaac said, causing her to raise her eyebrow. "It's… complicated… "

"Multiverse theory?"

Isaac gawked at Veronica. "I'm not an idiot, buddy. He's not wearing a RIG."

"But I AM contemplating stealing one and making an enhanced version. Because I LIKE that helmet."

Veronica looked at her 'brother'. "So… how old are you?"

"43 next month. You?"

"232, technically. And you don't look like you're in your forties."

"I've stopped aging. Long story, it sucked, meaning you are technically 32 and my younger sister. Welcome to the family."

Veronica paused in thought for a moment, before she sighed. "Fuck it. Old family's probably gone… so, what are we up to today, nii-san?"

"Oh, the usual. Killing whatever the fuck tries to kill us. Come on, I'll brief you on everything as we go."

* * *

Jaden groaned, rubbing his throat. Something was wrong. VERY wrong.

"How do you feel?"

"Like… shit…" Jaden barely managed to speak out, his voice all raspy. He was handed a glass of water which he quickly gulped down. "What…?"

"You were bit by a Necromorph Chryssalid, which infected you with the same virus that killed the crew of those ships." Rutia informed. "It was… troubling to figure out a cure, but the virus didn't seem to like… Estrogen…"

"Estrogen?" Jaden asked, "The hell does-" he then paused… what was with his voice? It sounded kinda squeaky, high pitched… feminine…

…and his chest felt…

He glanced down, and saw two large sacks of flesh on his chest.

"…WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"The venom could only be taken out with estrogen. The mutation caused to the poison made it more lethal to the chemicals in a male body. If I didn't do what I did, you would be dead, Commander."

"What you… you didn't." Jaden's mind started blanking out.

"Males don't produce enough estrogen in the amounts we needed."

 _Jade_ Takeo looked at her new self, recoiling in shock. "I-wha-who-gah-daga…" _she_ muttered incoherently, still trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened.

Rutia just fucking Gender-bent her!

"Well, at least you can be with the boss now."

"Shut up! He won't want to be with me."

"You DO realize that you aren't cosmetically female, right? You are _completely_ female."

Jade checked, blushing.

"Eep."

"Yeah. Only thing you have to worry about now is when you can have your first date!"

"I… I just…" Jade groaned. "Fuck, how do I explain this to the girls… "

Rutia gestured to her left, Jade following her hand to find Sonja and Nena sitting on a biobed before they coyly waved at their girlfriend.

"Oh."

* * *

 **Blake: I DID say someone wasn't coming back.**

 **Ron the True Fan: She's right. Jaden Takeo is dead. In his place is Jade Takeo.**

 **Jade: …I hate you all…**

 **117Jorn: You'll get used to it.**

 **Ron the True Fan: You DID want to be with him.**

 **Ruby: Yeah!**

 **Redemption's Avenger: And guess what? You get to meet our version of genderbent Ron!**

 **Jade: …Wait, WHAT?!**

 **Yang: Uh-oh.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Take cover!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	50. Chapter 50

**CMS _Roanoke_**

* * *

Ellie Langford had done many things in the last three years of her life.

She survived Titan Station's destruction, even survived time with Isaac after the incident before finding Tau Volantis.

But when the doors opened, she expected a necromorph.

Instead…

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEERE'S RONNIE!"

She got Ronald Pinkerton.

"What-who the hell are-" She began to shout, before she noticed another man with him. "I… Isaac? Is that you?"

"Ellie! Baby!" Norton rushed past them, hugging and kissing Ellie before Ron dragged him back.

"YOU get nothing, Norton. Especially since you led the fucking Unis here."

Ellie looked at Ron. "What?"

"Long story, but he led the fuckers here." Ron said, glancing around. "Either way, we're here to get you and your people off this ship - don't worry, we know about the writings in the Admiral's quarters - another long story - we'll head up there with Isaac. Hopefully we can finish this before the Unis _do_ show up."

Another woman wearing a SCAF RIG entered the room, firing her rifle down the hall while laughing madly. "I always HATED those assholes."

"While they were alive or dead?"

"Both! Only exception was my boyfriend, Jaden."

Ron smiled almost knowingly. "What?"

"Nothing important."

"Uh…" Ellie gestured to her as Ron looked back at Ellie. "Who is she?"

"Veronica Pinkerton, Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces, chief of security, CMS _Roanoke_." The woman said with a short salute. "I survived by placing myself in a stasis field. The undead bastards never noticed me because I was neither alive nor dead in that state."

"Lucky you," Isaac said, shaking his head. "Look, Ellie… I don't know exactly who these people are, but… hell they seem to know more about what's going on than we do, maybe… maybe even fix this whole damned mess… "

"Isaac, we have to get down to the surface. There's—"

The _Roanoke_ shook as something slammed into it. "QROW!"

 _"Yeah, the undead aliens decided to ram the ship into the one you're on. We couldn't stop them."_

Loud shrieking was heard throughout the ship, but Ron knew it was all psionic.

"The fuck was that?!" Norton shouted, ducking.

Ron grinned as he drew his sword. "Something fun to kill."

Veronica grinned, matching his own. "Oh yeah, we're _definitely_ related," she said, priming her plasma cutter. "We keeping score?"

"I've killed _gods_."

"Really?"

Ron grinned. "Oh, yes."

* * *

Jade looked in the mirror.

She looked… sexy.

"This… I don't even… " she muttered, touching her face. "I… I just… "

"Hey you look sexy!" Sonja said as she and Nena scanned their own wardrobe for something to fit Jade. "Don't complain! And now you can actually be with Ron without being gay!"

"Yeah… but we don't have Jaden Junior anymore…" Nena pouted slightly.

"Oh yeah… that…" Sonja muttered, before she blinked and smirked. "Unless… "

"What are you two talking about?" Jade asked.

"Nothing!" Both spoke in unison, before giggling madly.

Rutia rolled her eyes. "I can confirm the virus is dead. But without the constant amount of estrogen in your system—"

"Meaning?"

"What Nena and Sonja are thinking of is a REALLY BAD IDEA."

Nena looked at Rutia. "Leave it to the doctor to ruin our day."

She walked past them, tapping on her PADD. "Do you want to have a long, happy life with your girlfriend or deal with an undead monster wearing her face? The choice is yours."

"But we wouldn't be taking it _away_ though… " Nena mused, "Just… _adding_ it… "

"…what the heck are you two talking about?" Jade muttered, feeling a sense of dread.

"We'll get back to you on that, Jade-chan!" Nena said with a teasing grin, causing her to groan.

"At least it's a win-win on all fronts."

"What are you talking about?"

"All three of you are in love with Ron." All three girls looked at Rutia. "Wait, what?"

"Sonja fell in love with him day one, he was just disinterested in romance. And I've seen Nena looking at him."

The redhead blushed slightly. "I'm attracted to crazy, what can I say?" she admitted. "Got it from Jaden… I mean _Jade_ …"

Jade groaned, facepalming. "Fuck me… " she groaned.

"Should I send Ron that request?" Nena said slyly.

Jade blushed.

"I'm going to go to the bridge."

"In your state? Jade, you're wearing a hospital smock. One wrong turn, you're flashing the entire crew."

Jade was about to protest, before she thought about it, and blushed. "…fine… "

"How's the kid doin'?" a familiar voice called out as Ryu walked in with a bored expression, pausing as he took in what was going on. "Huh, congrats, it's not often a gender bend is attractive."

"Oh just shut up all of you…" Jade groaned. "I just want this to be over with… "

"Have no fear, that's what Transporters are for!" Nena grinned, planting a commbadge on Jade. "One little transport back to our room, then we can deal with your… clothing problem…" her grin widened. "Never was able to play… _dress up_ when I was younger…"

"…oh fuck my life…"

"At least you can learn to put a bra on as well as take it off." Jade glared at Rutia, who waved back. "Well, I have to go set up for my date."

"Date?" Sonja looked at Rutia. "With who?"

"Jorge."

The Trill left, making them stare as she left sickbay.

"Well, fuck."

* * *

Ron cackled with joy as he faced the undead aliens.

He hadn't had this much fun since the last time he faced the aliens in the XCOM universe. And now they were zombified abominations, it just made killing them all the more… _unique_.

"So, you ran into these assholes a while back?!"

Ron decapitated what he coined a 'nectoid', letting it run around in circles like a headless chicken. "Yup. You might've enjoyed the ass kicking we gave them."

"Damn right! I'd like to know what the hell I'm killing!" Veronica reloaded her bullpup, keying the undermounted weapon, firing off a spout of flame.

"…Is that an assault rifle with a flamethrower?"

"SCAF lets us modify our weapons to suit our needs! I specialize in burning people out of their hidey holes."

"…I'm introducing you to mom: she'll LOVE you."

"If she's as crazy as you, I'll love her!" Veronica shouted as she torched another Slasher. "AHAHAHAHAH! I love the smell of burnt flesh in the morning! …it _is_ morning right? My clock's fucked up."

"Sounds to me like another Pinkerton was found," a new voice commented as Ryu appeared, sitting on the air above them with an amused look.

"Who the fuck is he? And how's he pulling the whole floating thing?"

Ron punted another nectoid down the hall.

"Veronica, meet Ryu Hisanaga, Sorcerer of the Far Gates and our godfather. Ryu, this is… Full name?"

Veronica huffed as she reloaded her weapon. "Master Sergeant Veronica Alicia Wilhelmina Pinkerton, Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces, CMS _Roanoke_ security forces. …So magic's real?"

Ron nodded. "Real but usually unavailable for humans. There ARE exceptions to that rule, I presume, but I haven't bothered to learn."

"Several," Ryu commented in confirmation as he looked around with a bored expression, a flick of his hand incinerated a group of Necromorphs to ash. "It functions off of belief and faith, so realities like your own where you're so steeped in science and logic wouldn't be able to because you don't have the belief that you can use it, nor the faith that it will work on a subconscious level."

"Hmm. That'll be interesting for the Science Council to figure out."

A massive bang was heard as something entered the corridor. It was covered in torn, damaged green armor, but the rest of the skin was covered in armored bone.

Veronica fired her rifle at it, but the rounds bounced off. "Uh, what the fuck is that?"

"It USED to be a Muton."

Ryu looked at the abomination. "It's not magically created, but if I didn't know any better, I'd say it was an Outsider."

"What I DO know, Ryu…" Ron twirled his sword in his right hand, grinning as he approached the former Ethereal shock trooper. "Is that I'm going to kill it."

Ryu hummed as he stood up. "Either way, this will be a good opportunity, I'll be borrowing Homura and Mami to start their training," he informed. "So if you see them running around, don't coddle them too much."

"No help from me." The Muton charged at Ron, roaring.

Meanwhile, his new sister was forced to deal with more necromorphs in the form of Fodders and slashers with the occasional nectoid. While her brother was godly in close combat and that phaser rifle of his was beyond lethal, she was the better marksman, taking off limb after limb with one or two shots unless she felt like burning things.

That changed as gurgled moans were heard from the vents as mechanical, legless freaks of nature dropped out, floating on backpack thrusters. Their chests had a massive hole in them, shaped like a cannon.

"Oh, fuck." She muttered as the new Necromorph's chest began to glow. "TAKE COVER!" She shouted to Carver and Isaac and dived to the side before the Necro-Floater fired off its chest cannon, blasting forth a shotgun-like wave of destruction down the hall.

"The fuck was that thing?!" Veronica unloaded bullets into the freak of nature before using her own plasma cutter to hit the cannon, but it simply screamed before mutating long, lanky legs.

Carver almost dropped his rifle. "You're shitting me."

"Meh, I've seen worse. I was with the deep dig teams on the planet. You do NOT want to know the shit we ran into down there."

A loud crack was heard before Veronica saw her brother being slammed into a window.

A thick, glass window. "Shit." she muttered, grabbing hold of the closest bulkhead, before suddenly the glass shattered, sucking Ron and the Necromorphs outside.

"RON!" She deployed her helmet, jumping after her brother.

* * *

Homura Akemi was an expert in stopping time, not other forms of magic.

And Ryu was being an asshole by not letting her take weapons from the SCAF soldiers that were long since dead. She wasn't Mami: she needed firearms or explosives to attack.

"Magic isn't limited to one thing," Ryu told the two of them. "Magic is your soul bringing forth a change in the real world, so you will have to do that without relying on what you already know."

"It isn't helping that I am limited to purely defensive maneuvers. If I don't have a weapon, I can't do anything!"

"That's the point of the exercise. You have to learn. And Ron's pretty much said he's not giving you a hand."

And Homura continued to question WHY she was stuck with these people. Two Pukers stumbled towards her, firing spouts of jet puke with a ph equal or greater than hydrochloric acid in the Puella Magi's general direction.

"Magic is life," Ryu shouted at the pair as they scrambled away from the acid. "To use your magic, you _must_ believe that it is possible! Your must have _faith_ that you are able to do it, if you have neither, magic will forever be out of your reach!"

Belief and faith. Homura was beginning to loathe Ryu's teaching methods.

But he needed her help in defending reality. Defending Madoka.

Madoka. Madoka.

Screw belief. She was going to embrace rage, because the voice she was hearing said she was going to lose Madoka.

Ryu sighed as he saw Homura get herself angry. "Do _not_ use rage as your fuel, Homura!" he barked out. "Remember, it is your very _soul_ you are bringing forth to effect the world and every emotion you pour into it has an effect on it! The more anger you use, the less control over yourself you will have! You will becoming nothing but mindless beast that needs to be _put down_."

The voices told her not to listen. To embrace it. To make it whole.

"Make it… whole?"

That wasn't her mind talking, that was the fucking Moon crying for help.

The Brother moon was trying to screw with her head.

Oh, someone was going to PAY for that. And from the records, her witch, Homulilly, had something in common with Homura herself.

She didn't rely on others to do her job. So if she was going to do it, she was going to kill these things herself. And the best way to destroy disease was to burn it.

Necromorphs were simply walking, diseased corpses, spreading their sickness wherever they went. And she was the cure.

Ryu smirked as she managed to conjure a blast of flames to scorch the corpses that were trying to kill her. This place really was perfect to start their training, while not as horrifying as some of the Outsiders, these Necromorphs were definitely disturbing enough to help prepare them for the horrors they would have to face, but fire was one of the easier elements to conjure forth, merely heating the oxygen in the air till it combusted

Well, easy to conjure, to control… that was another story altogether as Homura found out as the spell went out of control and burned her hands.

Well, it was a good start. Ryu just had to convince Ron not to destroy ALL of those Brethren Moons.

Not likely, but it was worth a try. 'Speaking of which, wonder how he's doing?'

 _"Warning: Explosive Decompression. Repair crews have been notified."_

That answered _that_ question.

* * *

Veronica fired her RCS thrusters at full power, trying to catch up to Ron.

Even at the most peak of conditions, no human could survive more than one minute in the vacuum of space. The cold and the lack of air weren't exactly nice to the human body.

' _Come on, come on!_ ' She thought as she tried to pump more thrust while avoiding the stray mines. ' _I am NOT losing the closest thing I've got to a family now damnit!_ '

She found the Muton getting the shit stabbed out of it before Ron kicked it away.

And he wasn't choking. He was fine.

Her RIGLink then snapped on. " _That was NOT fun. I hate explosive decompressions_."

He sent her a message, but he wasn't wearing a RIG. "Can you hear me?"

" _Yeah, imouto, I'm FINE. I can_ live _in the vacuum if I wanted to. I just don't because it creeps the fuck out of everyone. And I don't think Ryu's exactly happy with the assholes that 'gave' me this particular ability._ "

"Oh… shit…" Veronica let out a sigh of relief. "That's… well, fuck you damn near gave me a heart attack! I shoved my RCS into the red zone to save you!"

" _Well, you didn't know I'm perfectly content to handle the vacuum. But I WILL say this. I LOVE that suit. You have a built in helmet! Do you know how many lives would've been saved from hull breaches if we had suits like those?_ "

"You like the RIGs."

" _Fuck yes! Granted, yours are 200 years out of date, but the_ Eudora's _got the upgraded shit. Combine that with Starfleet shit and you have the ultimate survival tool!_ "

"Huh… well, once we get to the Admiral's quarters back on the ship I'll send ya the specs for the Sovereign Colonies versions," Veronica said, grabbing Ron before guiding him back towards the ship. "Though I want a hand designing these new ones."

 _"You dabble with engineering?"_

"I have five degrees. All out of date, but…"

" _Current as far as I'm—_ " Another necromorph slammed into Ron, sending them tumbling downwards.

Towards the planet.

"RON!" The necromorph in question had no armor, but it was like the Muton. Only red.

A Berserker. " _Sergeant Pinkerton, this is Isaac Clarke. Do you read?_ "

"My brother's heading towards the planet! Can you call his ship? Get a shuttle, something!"

Laughter was heard from multiple sources. " _He'll be fine_."

"Nothing unprotected can survive reentry!"

She didn't know her new brother as well as she thought she did.

* * *

Ron slammed his fist into the Berserker. "YOU! ARE! RUINING! MY! DAY!"

The Necro-Berzerker simply roared as it tried to bite into his arm, digging into nothing but his PSG.

That was a problem, though.

It was straining to protect him from the heat and friction of reentry to a planet and from the attacks of an necromorph.

In fact, his meter read that it was at 64% and dropping fast from repeated bites, impacts and the heat. At least he could comfort himself with the fact that had he not upgraded the PSG to cruiser-levels, he would be dead long before now.

Then the Berserker tried to bite into his head. "Okay, THAT'S it," he growled as he ripped off one of its boney blades which had sprouted from its back, and shoved it into the beast's head before kicking the creature.

The two split up, the Berserker slamming into a Red Marker, getting impaled by it.

Ron, meanwhile, slammed into multiple rocky outcroppings, depleting the shields further and further.

"FUCK!"

 _SMASH_!

"FUCK!"

 _SMASH_!

"FUCK!"

 _SMASH_!

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" He slammed into a rock face, his shields finally failing as he slid down, his uniform being torn apart as he did.

"I hate my life."

* * *

 **117Jorn: Have a nice trip, see you next fall!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Really?**

 **Yang: I'd do it.**

 **Blake: You're you. Puns are your thing pre-Season 4. Then everyone started making fun of Adam pulling a Dead Space and disarming you.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: OK, so, we've made it through another chapter, and the events of DS3 are in full swing. Time for some wrecking of faces.**

 **DKR: And Moon killing, can't forget that, goes great with rye whiskey.**

 **Ron the True Fan: At least we're moving through the game. May the pain begin.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	51. Chapter 51

**CMS _Terra Nova_**

* * *

Veronica forced the airlock open and closed as quickly as she could, running towards the hangar containing the _Crozier_.

She told them it was a piece of shit, but a few parts would fix it.

" _Hey, Pinkerton, you were right about the shuttle. It's a piece of shit, but a bit of work will get it working. By the way, you got the deactivation codes for the mines? That way we don't fuck around with them_?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, yeah… Admiral had them, but I got a copy." She said, "I'll check the _Crozier_ into their IFF so they won't chase after us. "

"I'll head outside, grab us an engine. The damn thing needs one."

"I'm a little more concerned about finding my brother's body before those things do."

Norton scoffed over the RIGlink. " _He's dead. Burned up on reentry._ "

"Norton, I will FUCKING KILL YOU if you do not SHUT UP." Brother and sister shared the same disposition about Norton: he needed to die.

" _Yeah, and I'LL fucking kill him, little sister, thank you VERY MUCH._ " An unexpected voice intruded on the link.

Veronica froze. "What?"

" _Surprise, motherfuckers! I am VERY hard to kill!_ "

" _What - how the hell did he survive re-entry?!_ " Isaac shouted. " _That's impossible!_ "

" _I've survived reentry three times before, plus I have personal shields. They were depleted on impact with the rock face, though._ " That explained his ability to not die. " _I WILL say this though_."

* * *

Ron trudged through the snow on Tau Volantis, glaring through the blizzard. "IT'S FUCKING COLD DOWN HERE!"

"Really, I haven't noticed," Ryu teased as he appeared above Ron.

"It's minus 50! My Borg enhancements have their limits, you know!"

"Yeah, I figured. There's a loop that's giving me a headache and I saw the Borg in the Arctic. Mind explaining?"

Ron sighed. "They went back in time to stop First Contact, but the _Enterprise_ -E stopped them. But they didn't clean up the sphere they blew up. The debris landed in the arctic and a century later, everything went to fuck."

"I see, I'll have to pass that along to the Sorcerer of Time," Ryu commented with a bit of a frown. "And trying to talk to him is like trying to restrain the wind."

"Tell me about it. The Department of Temporal Investigations, his… scientific counterpart, so to speak, fucking hates me. Speaking of wind, I need a RIG. Veronica, you got coordinates for a stockade? I'm freezing my balls off down here! Almost literally!"

Ryu snorted before he snapped his fingers, causing his godson's body to warm up. "Such a baby," he teased.

"Those Borg survived the crash, but they were frozen, Ryu: their blood literally froze in their veins."

"I know. I'm just having fun with this."

"I'm SERIOUSLY questioning who my parnerial grandfather is right now. Veronica?"

" _Hang on, hang on. You don't have a RIG, so I have to guide you—_ "

"I have a positronic brain: send the coordinates."

" _Ohhhkay, sending NAV data now then…_ " She said, and moments later a navpoint appeared in the corner of his vision pointing west.

"En route. _Ra Cailum_ , you reading me?"

" _Loud and clear. Need polar gear, boss_?"

"No. Just keep an eye on me."

* * *

Norton sat back in the commander's seat on the _Crozier_ , slamming his head into the headrest. "Look, we can just let the _Ra Cailum_ people do this shit! We can all go home!"

Isaac was tempted to jump the line and blow Norton's head off. The only things stopping him were Ellie and the fact that the Pinkertons would tear him apart and feed him to the necromorphs.

"Look, Norton, we need to get down there, we NEED to kill that moon using the machine, otherwise the rest are gonna just home in on earth!"

"Then let them do it! We can leave!" The hatch opened to the shuttle, Veronica coming in, joined by all but one member of Team STRQ.

As you remember, Raven kinda went fucking nuts. "We are not going anywhere, Captain." Veronica stated. "Starfleet regulations are rather… strict. And we're working with them, so we're following their rules. And we're under quarantine."

"Quarantine?!" Norton snapped. "Do we _look_ infected?! If anyone should be quarantined here, it should be fuckin Isaac!"

"You got something to say, Norton?!"

"SHUT UP!" Both looked at Veronica, who pulled out both her weapons, pointing them BOTH at each man. "I will shoot you both if I have to."

"Then why are you pointing your rifle at my knee while you're pointing the cutter at Norton's head?"

Veronica smirked. "Because I like you more."

Norton sputtered before the blue lines all lined up on his head.

"Until we finish what Doc Serrano started and we get my brother, we. Go. Nowhere. Isaac, finish the repairs. And Norton? Last time I have to give an order twice. Shut up or I do what I do to stupid idiots."

Tai chuckled. "She is DEFINITELY Ron's sister."

* * *

Ron had ice on his skin. ' _Internal body temp is at 18c. I can't keep this shit up forever._ '

He continued marching towards the coordinates, marching through the snow before he heard something in the distance. "What now?" He groaned out, as he turned around to face whatever it was coming his way.

Stomping through the snow was a four-legged necromorph, covered in chitinous plating and moving VERY fast. The upload from the _Ra Cailum_ IDed the creature.

He was facing the nigh-unkillable Snow Beast.

 **(BGM: Dead Space 3: The Snow Beast)**

He drew his sword, blackened by reentry. "Alright, motherfucker. You're the unstoppable moving object. And that makes ME the immovable one. LET'S DANCE!"

Both were almost indestructible, both could recover from wounds fast.

It was the _ultimate_ matchup.

The beast let out an inhuman roar before it rushed towards him, mouth wide and open as it reached an arm out to grab him.

Ron jumped back, the cold wind whipping at him. 'Warning: body temperature dropping.' Ron shut off the warning. His Nietzschean blood DEMANDED he fight and prove himself. And so he would.

The beast deployed tentacles, whipping bone at him, which he blocked and deflected with his sword, grinning. "This. Will. Be. GLORIOUS."

* * *

Ruby loaded ammo into her magazines, grabbed a phaser rifle and type-2 and patted herself down. "We're going down there."

"Ruby, it is minus 50 below zero down there." Corpsa warned. "It is colder down there than it ever was on earth!"

"Come on, it can't be _that_ bad," Ruby smiled as she adjusted her winterized version of her usual gear, as did the rest of team RWBY.

Corpsa sighed. "Alright, beaming you down." She said.

"It _can't_ be colder than than Solitos." Weiss mused, as they were beamed down to the surface.

Corpsa waited for a few moments, counting down the seconds. "Five… four… three… two… one… " she then activated the transporter, and beamed them back - and RWBY was covered in snow, with ice built up around their hair, and left in a shivering mess.

"I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-w-w-w-wa-a-aassssss www-w-ww-wro-o-o-o-o-o-onnnngg…" Weiss shivered out.

"Told you. Even on Andoria, we don't go out without proper gear. And THAT planet is COLDER than my homeworld!" Cassie sighed before tapping her combadge. "Boss, RWBY wants to assist, but we need heavier coldgear." She froze before considering that. "Holy shit, this is the coldest planet Starfleet's _ever_ encountered."

* * *

Ron landed in a ruin, grinning. "I'm having the time of my life down here!"

Above, Ryu facepalmed. Ron was enjoying fighting the undead monsters. There was something WRONG with his godson.

Letting out a sigh he looked at the moon, oh, he could feel it's whispers as it tried to effect him - not that it could given his experience with the Elder Gods, some of whom were actually rather pleasant conversationalists as they tried to rip his throat out to shit down the hole. "Hey Ron, you hearin' voices?" he questioned, appearing next to his godson.

"Oh, so you're not as immune to the Marker signal as I thought."

"Wait, you're NOT hearing voices?"

Ron huffed as he dodged another volley of bone. "Borg encountered our universe's version of these things centuries ago and exterminated them! As much as we all hate them, they ARE sorta necessary when you have an extragalactic threat coming in towards the Delta Quadrant. Let them deal with it!"

Sad to say, but it was true: whenever Ryu saw a great threat heading for the Milky Way, he… shifted the invader's point to the Delta Quadrant, home of the Borg.

The Markers, one or two other races, etc.

"Oh THERE'S a RIG!" Ron smiled spotting one of the devices. "Hey, you mind throwing that thing a klick or two away, I want to put this on."

"Sure thing." A flick of the wrist and the Snow Beast went flying, howling all the way.

"Thank you."

He was fucking cold and while Ryu was willing to keep Ron's body temperature just a hair's breadth above freezing to death, he wasn't going to keep Ron alive or make him reliant on his powers.

Not that Starfleet officers relied on magic anyways. He respected them for their ability, their adaptability and their love of learning new things and exploration, even if he considered it somewhat naive.

So while he wouldn't help Ron much, he didn't need much help.

Just needed to keep himself warm long enough for the RIG to get his body temp up to levels where he wasn't freezing to death.

* * *

" _Alright, sending up RIG data. Cassie, you know what to do."_

"Copy that. Time to take it and make it ours."

Cassie's hands flew across her console, working quick.

"…And I'm done. Fabricating RIGs now."

"That was fast." Ruby commented.

"Well, I had to remove the kinesis and stasis units, but we don't HAVE those to replicate first hand. The rest, I can make and make better. Suit up."

RWBY each grabbed a RIG with their respective colors and changed. Two minutes later, they were ready. Ruby, of course, had her cloak draped across her shoulders.

"Ready?"

"Yup!"

They all deployed their helmets. Ruby blinked. "Woah. Cool! HUDs!"

"Energizing."

* * *

"…I'm just gonna say it, these are _not_ starfleet regulated uniforms."

"We're just expanding your wardrobe - try this on!"

"This is a Japanese School Girl outfit!"

"…So?"

"…"

Jade had been playing Barbie doll for the last 5 hours. And she was not happy.

"I get the feeling you two are trying to use these outfits as eyecandy not just for yourselves, but for Ron."

"Well… Rutia was right: we all want him, in a way. We were content with you until… this happened."

"It doesn't help that I still don't know how to put on a bra!"

Sonja shrugged. "I wrap mine, remember?"

Jade grumbled "Do I _have_ to wear one?" she said, as she begrudgingly tried on the next set of clothes. "I mean, why do I need a Bra at all? In fact, what's will all the variety here? Why can't I just wear copies of the same thing over and over again?"

"You do not understand. We wear different clothing for a reason. To… well, you like it when Nena's wearing something different, right?"

Jade looked at Nena, who had changed into a sailor fuku like Jade's.

She had to admit, Nena did look… good. "Oh, Ron will probably explain about how it's a natural thing to seduce a mate. But you want to look good for your first date with Ron, right?"

Jade attempted to picture herself in a dress. On a date with Ron… her face reddened as a small trail of blood dripped down from her nose. "Uuuuuhhhhhhhhhh…"

"You just had a sexy moment, didn't you?"

"…Yes."

Nena and Sonja grinned. "Well, as soon as Ron gets back, you can ask him out!" Jade looked at herself self consciously.

"…I used to be a guy. What if he doesn't want to go on a date with me? Or even to talk to me?"

"He had a holographic projection of you as Fem-Jade." Nena pointed out. "The _real_ obstacle isn't Ron though… it's… _them._ "

Jade blinked, before she paled. She had almost forgotten about _them_. Ron's two borderline Yandere girlfriends. If they found out about this… oh she is _fuuucked_ …

"So… how do with deal with Annette and Cassie?"

"…I have no idea. Maybe we should… talk to them?"

"…I don't want to get shanked before I get a chance with our man, girls."

"Well, they won't kill US: we're pregnant." Nena walked off, grabbing a phaser rifle from one of the arms lockers in the room.

WHY Ron installed those things in crew quarters, Jade would never know. But at least it might save her from the yandere girlfriends.

* * *

"Still kinda chilly… but better than before." Blake mused as the four continued to traverse the arctic planet, heading towards Ron's last known coordinates.

"How can a planet be this cold?" Yang asked, looking around the desolate icy landscape. "It's just… weird having a whole planet made like this! Makes as much sense as a planet made of nothing but deserts, or forests!"

"Well, there are a few desert planets back in their universe—" Roaring was heard from the distance before they hear Ron screaming at the source.

"GET BACK HERE AND DIE YOU FUCKING THING!"

RWBY looked to one another before Ruby smirked. "Found him!"

"Not yet, Ruby: he's 5.4 kilometers away. And moving away. Fast. While whatever he was fighting is coming towards US even faster."

"Well, best get ready." Weiss said, flinging out her sword. "Any idea what is is?"

"Something _big_ ," Ruby commented, already feeling the ground shake as she pulled out Crescent Rose.

Moments later, a massive crab-like necromorph rushed in, roaring at them.

"The Snow Beast. GREAT."

"You know what that thing is?!"

"I downloaded the Dead Space series so I could read it down here: don't aim for the body! Soft tissue only!" The Snow Beast whipped out four tentacles with yellow spots before it fired off a volley of bone spikes.

The RWBY team jumped out of the way, as Weiss ran forward as she stabbed the ground with Myrtenaster, shooting pillars of ice towards the creature to try and slow it down, however the beast leaped over her attack, attempting to strike at her, only for Yang to scream out as she punched the beast in the face, knocking it over.

Ruby fired her weapon at the tentacles, but as soon as they popped, it just pulled out more, shooting more bone spikes at them. "That's not fair!"

They couldn't kill this thing!

The air suddenly became much warmer as something came in from above.

Ruby didn't call in for an airstrike from the _Ra Cailum_. So what the hell was that?

However, the answer soon came as what appeared to be the rear-half of a ship suddenly came tumbling down, crashing into the snow - and actually hitting the beast, knocking it out of the way and sending it flying back by a few hundred meters.

"…pretty sure that's a chunk from the _Crozier,_ " Blake mused.

It was the entire rear half of the shuttle, actually, as the Snow Beast fell back, roaring.

Yang decided to pull an Isaac, yelling "FUCKING THING!" at it as it shuffled away like a giant crab.

Norton soon fell from the wreckage, shivering as he met the cold air. "FUCK, it's cold!"

Blake scoffed. "It's minus 50, you traitorous bastard."

"I haven't done anything! And who the hell are you people?!"

"We're team RWBY, from another universe, long story." Ruby said, retracting her weapon. "Come on, there's a base not far from here - we'll get your people some winterized RIG's from there."

"Wait, what about Isaac?!"

"He's DEAD, Ellie! Come on! We have to move!"

* * *

Isaac Clarke felt one thing.

Fucking COLD.

And moving snow under his ass as something dragged him and Carver through the snow.

He struggled to grab his cutter before the dragger kicked him. "Quit it: I can't drag you AND Carver if you two struggle like that."

Isaac sighed somewhat in relief at the voice, looking up to see none other than Veronica Pinkerton dragging the two. "Fucking hell I thought you were one of those things… " he muttered, before glancing around. "Where… where are the-"

"Shuttle got torn in half," Veronica answered, letting go of Isaac letting him stand up. "If we were lucky enough to survive, they probably did too. Your girlfriend seems like the hard-to-kill type."

"She's not-"

"Norton's an obsessive asshole putting his survival and Ellie's over the _entire human fucking race._ " Veronica growled. "Once we kill these fucking things then you two can get working on mending bridges, and once that fuck's taken care of."

"Can't…" He shivered before they were dropped to the snowy ground, right before she dragged them into a sealed room, which, though cold, was windless.

"Never liked these generators." She activated her primitive kinesis module to kickstart the room's generator, turning on heat lamps that turned the room into an uncomfortable sauna.

Which had a dead body in it.

Isaac's first instinct was to stomp it, but he quickly realized the corpse didn't have any signs of being Necrofied. "…friend of yours?" He asked the former Sovereign Colonies member.

"I had a lot of friends. You killed them all."

Isaac shifted as Carver finally woke up, panicking. "I'm—"

"Thanks. Seeing them as walking corpses is insulting. Fucking Scenario five."

"What the hell IS Scenario Five, anyways?" Carver coughed as he got up.

Veronica sighed. "Scenarios One through Four were 'quarantine' to 'never leaving this shithole'. Five… everyone had to die. I didn't agree: we needed to send the information on the Markers back to Earth so they learned not to make more. Four was perfectly acceptable. I want you to do something, Clarke. Make the deaths here mean something."

Isaac said nothing, but he did nod his answer. "I just want to make sure Ellie survives this… " he muttered.

"She will. My brother's down here. And he's probably killing every undead fuck on this planet. She'll be fine."

She handed them their weapons. "I know where a depot is. I can get you winter RIGs so we can survive out there."

"What about you?"

"Mine's already winterized. Standard issue. Come on. Warm up, then we're going out there."

* * *

It took them a while, but after some travel they managed to reach the base where they could find additional Winterized RIG's. "There should be some more down here," Veronica said gesturing towards the elevator.

"Should?"

"Hey, I was too busy killing the undead in orbit. Ackerman's last transmission before I put my ass in the pod said he was trapped with idiots who ate necromorph flesh."

"… _what?_ " Isaac asked, actually feeling repulsed at the idea of _eating_ the flesh of those things. Carver actually nearly barfing at the thought.

"They went nuts and were VERY hungry. I prefer IVs, personally."

Isaac and Carver stared at Veronica before Isaac walked round and got the gears necessary to fix the elevator. He didn't want to think about it.

Or think about how FUCKED Veronica Pinkerton was in the head. She might be more insane than he was.

Once the Elevator was fixed, the trio climbed inside, as they began their descent. " _This is Private Sam Ackerman of the 41st Engineering._ " A voice spoke on the intercom in a pre-recording. " _I told. Them not. To eat. The infected… then they started changing, becoming sensitive to bright light - even shining my flashlight at them sent them into a violent rage. I disabled the elevator to keep them trapped down there… god rest your souls._ "

"Fuck me."

"Yeah, pretty much what I said earlier. Poor bastard probably died down here." The elevator came to a stop before the doors opened, Veronica deploying her helmet. Isaac and Carver almost felt jealous for doing that as their helmets were… fucked.

"I hope you two know how to be sneaky."

* * *

 **117Jorn: *clicking heard in the background* Oh for fuck's… Ron who did you give the Slasher corpses too?**

 **Ron the True Fan: I vaporized them. And those aren't slashers.**

 **Ruby: …Then what are they?**

 **Blake: …Feeders.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Oh boy.**

 **117Jorn: Then who the fuck fed someone infected corpses, and where did they fucking get them from?!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Keep your voice down—**

 **(SCREECHING)**

 **Ron the True Fan: Well, there goes our achievement. GO LOUD!**

 **Redemption's Avenger: *over sound of weapons fire* I liked it when zombies DIDN'T try to fuck up your mind!**

 **117Jorn: BUUUUURN! *unleashes flamethrower***

 **Ja Ne!**


	52. Chapter 52

**Tau Volentis - Supply Depot**

* * *

"So… knew any of the people we're about to… kill? Rekill? What the hell IS the proper noun for this shit?"

Veronica giggled at Isaac's confusion. "Meh. I knew Ackerman: good kid. But these guys were all assholes. I'm not going to be regretting putting another round in their heads."

"…Didn't they die after they ate necromorph flesh?"

"Don't care: they're dying again." She said, as they opened the next hatch - and they immediately spotted one of the creatures, a thin creature which turned around, hissed at them before it ran off.

"…that was fucking freaky…"

Isaac and Veronica simply tip-toed into the barracks before a massively loud BANG was heard, catching the attention of the Feeders.

"Ok, that was either very good, or very bad."

"No bothering to whisper?"

"Oh, it doesn't matter. The hungry fucks are too focused on THAT thing, whatever it is."

Suddenly there was the sound of fire being burned, followed by loud screeching. " _BURN. BUUUUUUURRRN!_ " A familiar voice screamed out. " _I got me a new flamethrower bitches! FEAR ME!_ "

"…Is that RON?!"

 **(BGM: Iron Man (intro) by Black Sabbath)**

The Feeders ran into a corner before Ron stomped in, wearing a damaged but still functioning RIG, holding a homemade flamethrower.

"That's right, motherfuckers! I'M BACK!"

The Feeders all grouped into a corner, whimpering in fear.

Isaac stared at the sight before approaching Ron. "Where the fuck were you when I was on the _Ishimura_? Or the Sprawl?"

"I was assimilated by the Borg. But now I'm making up for it."

"Damn straight you will!" Isaac grinned, "So, where are the winterized RIG's?"

"Suit kiosk is that way. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to kill these things." The feeders all looked at Ron as though asking 'wait, what?' before he torched them, laughing insanely.

Veronica then joined in, shooting them which her rifle.

* * *

 **USS Ra Cailum**

* * *

Jade poked her head out of the turbolift, looking both ways as she slowly made her way towards the deck where Ron's quarters were located. ' _No sign of them yet…_ ' she mused, gulping. ' _Maybe they don't recognize me…?_ '

The girl tiptoed to Ron's quarters. He had moved into larger quarters, knowing the girls who loved him wouldn't like to live in a shoebox.

They won't care and Jade knew it. But he cared.

And if she was lucky with the trio… she, Sonja and Nena would be moving into that quarters.

…assuming Annette didn't try to break their minds with her psionics, and Cassie didn't teleport them outside into the vacuum of space, for simply insinuating the fact they wanted to be with their 'Senpai'.

"We know you're out there, Jade." She jumped and fell on her ass before the doors opened, Cassie standing at the entrance to the living quarters of the most powerful man in their lives. "Hello, Jade."

"You… know?"

"I might be an innovade now, but I still have a link to the ship's sensors. So, yes, I know. Also, Annette sensed you from outside. You can't hide from psionics."

Jade gulped slightly… before positioning her hands in the shape of a cross.

"…that doesn't work for atheists, you know."

"I'm fucking desperate right now!"

"Get inside. We need to talk."

Jade began to sob as she was dragged inside.

Nearby, Nena and Sonja watched.

"So… bigger guns?"

"MUCH bigger guns."

Both girls looked at one another before saying "Armory."

* * *

"Jade, the only reason we aren't trying to kill you is because we want to know why you're here and Ron would lynch us for killing his MS legion commander. So… why are you here?"

"…before I tell you, promise me you won't try to lynch me, teleport me outside the ship, break my mind using psionics of any form or medical technology, and not put me under any form of physical, mental, or emotional harm."

Annette and Cassie shared a brief look. "We can work with that. We figure we already know why, but we have to ask."

Jade gulped. "Okay… the… truth is… ILOVERON!" Immediately after saying it, seemingly out of nowhere pulled out a medieval-looking shield between her and them, made from Tritanium.

"…where did she get that?"

"Sonja pulls Knives out of thin air, and _that_ is what you question?"

Well, that aside, Jade had a good reason for being paranoid and afraid.

The two women knew they were yanderes, but they were unique yanderes in that they weren't unwilling to let another woman date their man, so long as they approved.

"Don't worry, Jade, we're not going to hurt you."

She peeked from behind the shield. "You… you're not?" She asked hesitantly.

"Jade, we're not unwilling to let you try dating Ron. He just has to accept. And we're not the ones you have to worry about when it comes to approval."

Jade blinked before a ship flew past the windows.

A _Galaxy_ -Class starship named USS _Damascus_.

"…Oh right… his mom…" She muttered, before she sighed. "I'm still fucked… "

The doors opened, Nena and Sonja rushing in with heavy assault equipment. "NO ONE MOVE!"

"…Really? We weren't going to kill her."

"…Now I feel really stupid."

* * *

On the ground, Ron led the team towards the command center, grinning. "And if I'm right, the fucking thing should be RIGHT around the corner."

"What does he mean?" Isaac asked.

"You'll see…" Blake said, as she went ahead to fix the elevator. Not even a minute before she left, she came back - and the elevator was working.

The group proceeded to board the lift, moving up towards the command center, before…

 _CLANG_.

"FUCKING THING!"

"Called it! Time to murder it!" The lift was forced off the tracks before they all fell down as another Snow Beast jumped down to face them. "Ok, asshole, time to finally die! Who wants to rip it apart?!"

Isaac and Carver didn't need to be told twice, as Isaac fired off a stasis blast, slowing the beast down as Carver began firing at it.

Ron fired his new assault rifle at it, joined by his sister. "RWBY, stop this little fucker in its' tracks!"

"How?!"

"Weiss, freeze it! Blake, distract! Sisters, you and me are on tearing duty!"

 **(BGM: Hell to Pay by Miracle Of Sound)**

"You guys are fucking nuts!"

Isaac reloaded his cutter. "Crazy works, Carver! Let's go!"

Weiss leaped up and smashed her sword into the ground, Ice speeding towards the creature - but before it could leap out of the way, Isaac hit it with a Stasis field, allowing Weiss's attack to latch it to the ground.

Gambol Shroud's ribbon wrapped around the necromorph's remaining legs, securing it in place, allowing Ruby to snag the ribbon and Yang, who secured herself to the hardest thing she could find.

Ron then grabbed the other half of the Beast. "Veronica, Isaac, Carver, shoot whatever that thing spits out! Yang, PULL!"

And shoot they did, as the three soldiers fired at the creature with everything they had, while Yang began pulling as hard as she could. "Come… on… you… BITCH!" She growled out, her eyes burning red.

Ron also began tugging, laughing as he hear the insides began to tear apart.

The Beast roared, but that roar was filled with fear and a plea for mercy.

But while Ron's new girlfriend was French, he still didn't understand a word of it, meaning it was fucked.

"DIE! FUCKING DIE, YOU…" It whipped a spike at Isaac, who stole Ron's line.

"FUCKING THING!"

It complied, if unwillingly, as it was torn in half, the leg Yang was tugging on via Gambol Shroud's ribbon flying at the two sisters hanging from a rockface, embedding itself barely a foot from Yang's head.

"WHOA!" Yang shouted in surprised, before she sighed. "That… that was close… "

"Go… go team… RWBY!" Ruby cheered tiredly.

The spike was removed from the wall by Ron's kinesis unit. "Get inside. I'm going to make sure this thing stays dead." He began to rip the Beast apart and shoot with the beast's very limbs.

Carver shook his head. "That's pointless!"

Isaac simply nodded.

That one Guardian on the _Ishimura_ , the fucking thing in the food storage…

He understood that this annoyance had to stay dead.

"Yeah, I get it. Keep it up, but make sure you come inside as soon as you're done."

"Will do!" Ron said, blasting flames over the corpse of the snow beast, starting up a rather nice fire.

Carver stared. "You're insane. You're all FUCKING INSANE!"

Veronica grinned. "One of us, one of us…" Isaac joined in on the chant, soon followed by Team RWBY.

Carver ran inside screaming.

* * *

 **Snowman: One of us, One of us, One of us…**

 **Ron the True Fan: Something so simple is so VERY entertaining.**

 **117Jorn: They're all fucking insane now…**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yeah, but all in their own, individual ways - and it's the GOOD kind of insane.**

 **Ruby: …I'm not sure…**

 **Ron the True Fan: Next chapter will be FUN!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	53. Chapter 53

**SCAF Command Center - Tau Volantis**

* * *

After Ron burned the Snow Beast into sterile ash, the gang all regrouped.

Norton was not happy about seeing them alive. Ron wasn't happy about seeing Norton still breathing, either.

"How. The fuck. Are you. Still. ALIVE?!" Norton exclaimed.

"I'm hard to kill, fuck off Norton." Ron said, shoving him to the side. "So, Ellie. What's our next move?"

"Don't you already know? You seem to know our every move before we make it."

"I do, but it's best you explain it for those who don't."

Ellie blinked. "OOOOOk, then. We've looked through the written logs, well Santos has, and there's a signal experiment in a nearby warehouse."

Santos sighed. "But it's at the other side of the complex. And with those things—"

"The necromorphs we can handle. It's the traitors I'm more worried about."

Norton glared at Ron. "The fuck is that supposed to mean?!"

"How about this. Let's make a bet. The fucking Unis show up anytime between right now and when we get to the complex, I get to put a round in your head. They don't, I give everyone who wants to go a free trip back to Earth, all expenses paid with some of our technology to make your energy crisis a thing of the past. That sound good to you?"

"…fine." Norton growled, "Even if they do, it's not my fault! I'm only here to keep Ellie safe!"

"Sure thing, asshole," Veronica muttered, slapping him behind the head. "Lead the way, Nii-san."

"So, Veronica, can you track anything through shockspace?"

"Fuck no."

"So you have to send a transmission."

Veronica looked at her brother before deploying her helmet, activating a private RIGlink. "Talk. How do you know all this shit?"

"All is fiction, all is reality."

Veronica wasn't Ron, but she figured it out. "…we're fictional in your universe?"

"We're all fictional. I'm from some place called the Star Trek universe."

"Oh, sweet! Old TV series from the 20 and 21st Centuries! …Went downhill with JJ Abrams' reboots. And Discovery. But we don't talk about Discovery."

"I watched it; wasn't impressed. This universe is called Dead Space."

"Huh. Fitting."

"Why?"

"Because everything's dead!"

Isaac wasn't sure if he liked that smile on Ron's face.

On the other hand…

"Dude, those two scare the shit out of me."

Ruby giggled. "It's what they do."

* * *

Outside, Ron raised his hand, counting down as whistling was heard.

"And here come the Unis!"

"Like clockwork…" Veronica giggled. "So, when we gonna shoot Norton? Guy's starting to piss me off… "

"Couple hours." The missiles impacted the rock behind them, sending the siblings, Isaac and Carver flying, rolling in the snow below.

"How the hell did Danik find us?!"

"Three guesses and two don't count! By the way, it starts with N and used to be the name of a really shitty antivirus program back in the 20th and 21st centuries!"

"…so should we just shoot him when we see him, gloat first, or fuck with him first?" the new Pinkerton sibling asked.

"I'm tempted to turn him into a necromorph just so I can kill him twice."

"…We are DEFINITELY family!"

Two Circle dropships dropped off a squad of zealots, armed with modern SMGs. "Marker traitor! Die!"

"So, sis, want to murder these fucks?"

"Religious nutcases?" She grinned ferally. "It must be my fucking BIRTHDAY!"

The four took cover before a familiar roar was heard. "ANOTHER ONE?!"

"Well, it IS a necromorph from this planet!" A wall collapsed as another Snow Beast stomped through it, tentacles whipping out.

"We had a shitty time killing the last one! Now we have to deal with another one AND the fucking zealots?!" Ron groaned before punching Carver in the face ("What the Fuck?!") and pulling out his type-1 cricket. "If you can't kill em… turn em."

"Turn 'em?" Isaac asked, "What the hell is _that_ supposed to mean?!"

Ron fired a single shot into the monster before ducking into cover. "Please work, please work…" The Snow Beast froze in place before it focused solely on the zealots.

"Sic em!" The Beast charged at the Unis, Ron grinning.

"I'm good."

"Wh… bu… HOW?!"

"…My brother is _AMAZING!_ " Veronica laughed. "Here beasty beasty! Mommy needs a ride!"

The Snow Beast used its' tentacles to pick her up and place her on its' back. Isaac and Carver watched, jaws dropped. " ** _What the fuck_**."

"It's what I do." Ron shrugged "I kinda hijacked it using nanotechnology."

"ONWARD VALIANT STEED!" Veronica shouted, riding the Snow Beast towards the very confused and very terrified unies who tried - and failed - to hit her, as the Beast ripped through them like a can opener.

Ron began working on the type-1, modifying it. "Well, I'm not losing my new sister."

"What the hell are you doing?"

Ron fired his phaser at Veronica, almost knocking her off the Beast. "What the hell?!"

"Well, don't complain about me wanting to upgrade your RIG!"

"What are you-" She began to complain, before she noticed her HUD, as her RIG began to shift slightly, upgrading as the nanonprobes contained in the beam worked their magic. "Oh… nevermind! Thanks Nii-san!" She continued to Whoop as she chased the Uni's away.

"…I'm going to feel bad about killing that thing when we kill everything on this planet. Let's go."

* * *

Jacob Arthur Danik watched as the snow Beast and its'…rider… slaughtered his troops.

"Carr, what in the name of Altmann am I looking at?" Randal Carr blinked beside his leader as he looked at the monster killing their troops.

Whether that's referring to Veronica Pinkerton or the Snow Beast is up to you, readers.

"It… appears to be… a human riding… one of… them?" Randal said, looking very… perplexed. "How… did she do that?"

"Better yet, my good friend, WHO is she?" Because he heard whoops about the Sovereign Colonies.

Which ceased to exist 200 years ago. These holy creatures should have killed her centuries ago, unless…

The stasis effect. The necromorphs couldn't sense anything protected by stasis.

"Kill her! Kill her and that… thing!"

* * *

"WEEEEEEE!" Veronica cheered as the Snow Beast leaped between a set of hills, crashing atop more Uni troops.

For once, she had the fucking necromorphs on her side!

" _Veronica, sis, mind leaving it to the Snow Beast while we deal with the plot of this godforsaken game?_ "

"…Game?"

"Dead Space 3 _. I'll send you a vid-walkthrough of the game to watch while you make your way back to the facility. Now, we have to deal with the Nexus._ "

"I went INSIDE that thing when they tested it the first time!"

" _…Ready for round two, followed by killing it?_ "

"…isn't it already- gah fuck it." She muttered as she hopped off the beast, patting its side. "Keep going Beasty! Do what ya do best!"

The necromorph roared before running off.

"…It'll be fine, right?"

 _"I enhanced its' regenerative systems. It'll be fine as much as it was before I hijacked control of the damn thing_."

Veronica pouted before walking off, taking a round from a sniper rifle powerful enough to normally take off her head.

Instead, it bounced off. "The fuck?"

" _Personal shield generator. You're almost as tough as I am now! …Except mine are cruiser-class and yours are basic. I'll work on it later_."

"… _awesome._ " She said gleefully. "What else can I-"

 _CLING_

"STOP SHOOTING AT ME!" She shouted, firing her motorized pulse rifle at the direction of the sniper.

A scream was heard followed by more screaming..

She knew that kind: bastard was getting turned into a necromorph.

Fuck him.

* * *

Back at the actual plot, Ron, Isaac, and Carver were almost to the experimental warehouse. "You can FLY?"

"Anti-grav RATO boots. I'd be wearing them NOW if the RIG weren't a bitch."

"…be honest with us, is there anything you _can't_ do?!" Isaac demanded.

"Plenty of things. I can't reorganize matter at will, I can't survive unassisted in a sun… I'm just smarter, faster, stronger—"

Carver huffed in amusement. "Sounds like a tagline from an old vid series."

"…Actually, it does. Look, it fucking sucks, Isaac. You want to know WHY I'm so fucked up?"

"I don't particularly care as long as you don't fuck _us_ up," Isaac stated. "You kill those fucking things, that's all I care about right now."

The hatch to the warehouse opened, showing a helmetless Veronica, smiling. "He modified my RCS thrusters! I can jump 50 feet in the air and almost glide everywhere!"

Isaac paused, then turned to Ron. "…I REALLY want you to upgrade our suits. SCAF shit-no offense-"

"Meh, it's 200 years old. Don't care."

"Is nothing compared to the shit Danik's throwing at us! If you want this mission to succeed, sir, you need to upgrade our RIGs."

Ron thought about it before shooting Carver and Isaac with his cricket.

"Ow!"

"What the fuck?!"

"Its an upgrade," Ron stated, "Give it a moment."

Isaac deployed his helmet, looking at the HUD before it began to change.

Becoming more streamlined, user-friendly, faster. And a bar appeared.

"The hell? What's a 'personal shield generator'?"

"How I survived before I got the RIG. It's built into my body thanks to an asshole with a grenade. And it's self-upgrading."

Both men looked at Ron in mild horror before Veronica grinned. "A wellspring of upgrades."

"Blame the Borg. They stuck their shit in me."

"…you know what? Fuck it, I just want this to be over with…" Isaac muttered as they proceeded to the location of the Nexus.

A click was heard as they came upon the necromorph. "Ah, Isaac! There you are! And… Captain Pinkerton."

"Hoi-oh, Santos. Is Norton up there? I want to shoot him. Repeatedly. With a positron cannon!"

Norton shouted, peeking over the railing. "Yeah, well, fuck you, too, fuckface!"

"Marker-lover!"

"…EXCUSE ME?!"

"Well, you DID bring the Unis here! Remember our bet?"

"I DID NOT BRING THE UNI'S HERE!" Norton shouted. "Its fucking coincidence! It could've been anyone else from the fucking crew!"

Ron activated the two player characters and his sister's private RIGlinks. "He did it."

"I don't want to know." Isaac switched to public comms. "So, what the hell are we supposed to do here?"

Veronica looked at the Nexus. "We heat the fucker up and shoot it with the harpoon guns to pry it open. THEN some dumb bastard - last time, it was me - goes inside, shoots a probe into the nerve clusters and fights for their life against the necromorphs this thing spawns."

Ron laughed disturbingly. "Sounds like fun."

"Yeah, well, the fun wore off after the first five waves." Veronica informed shrugging. "Then it got boring."

Carver groaned. "Those two… they're more fucked up than you, Isaac," he muttered.

"Why do you think I _like_ 'em so much?" The Marker-killer asked with a small smirk.

"…you're insane. I'M SURROUNDED BY CRAZIES!"

"And you're one of them." Carver looked at Ron. "Marker signal."

Carver's eye twitched.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"

* * *

After a scream that literally woke the dead, Carver ran out, encountered a torn open warehouse, got Ron and Veronica to get the parts for the probe gun while Isaac got the roof furnaces back online.

But this isn't about that.

Right now was time for the fun of entering the Nexus. Veronica had given them all the right guns for the job.

All four of them had chainguns with underslung shotguns in their hands as they entered the lift.

"Hey, Marker-lover! Mind lowering us into the belly of the beast?"

"FUCK. YOU." Norton snapped, even as he hit the switch that lowered them down into the creature's stomach.

"You're enjoying that."

"You're damned right, little sister. Because I know nothing he's got can kill me. So, either I make him snap or he brings in the necromorphs. Either way, he's going to die."

"Sure he's not being affected by the signal?"

Ron scoffed. "He's spent as much time around Markers as YOU have, Isaac. He's being affected by the signal, but that does not excuse his suicidal bullshit. So, mercy kill the fucker."

"We'll get to it when it happens," Veronica said, priming her cutter. "Let's just get the data so we can leave, and get this done with."

The cage entered the belly of the beast (literally) and both Pinkertons had evil grins that their helmets could not hide.

Carver quietly wept while Isaac took it in stride.

Isaac knew he was already nuts and had it as under control as Ron did.

Why bother?

Carver, as the voice of sanity, decided to ask the question of the day.

"Anyone else find it fucked up that we're walking around inside one of these things?"

"Carver, I did this 200 years ago: fucked up means nothing to me anymore."

"And never meant anything to me."

"Nerve Point." Veronica said, pulling up the weapon. "Once I shoot this thing, get ready."

Ron's cackle unnerved Carver, but Veronica took that as a sign of 'shoot the damn thing'. So she did. Shrieking was heard as Feeders popped out of pores in the fleshy ground.

"Ooooh. TARGETS!" The Feeders promptly fled.

"GET BACK HERE!" Ron shouted as he chased after the beasts… and oddly enough Benny Hill music began to play as he went deeper into the beast.

"Is—"

"Don't question it, Carver. I stopped trying to make sense of this shit back on the _Ishimura_."

Carver looked at Isaac as he shot at the necromorphs. "Isaac, that was six years ago!"

"I know. And I gave up the second the necromorphs showed up."

Carver bemoaned his situation as the Feeders screamed in terror. He was surrounded by insanity. And the worst part?

He was beginning to enjoy the crazy.

"One of-"

"DON'T YOU START!"

* * *

It took them a few minutes (and Ron scaring every Feeder that tried to attack them) but they were able to acquire all the data they needed from the Nexus and sent the data to Ellie, now they returned to the lift to make it back up top.

"This is when Norton goes Uni on us, just so you know." Ron whispered to Veronica.

"A chance to leave us behind, stuck in a lift? I figured…" she muttered. "But I'm sure a metal door can't stop my nii-san."

"Steel, I can break with ease. My muscles are strong enough to tear apart titanium 15 millimeters thick and my bones are harder than diamond."

"How hard?"

"21.4."

Veronica looked at Ron in surprise. "Your bones are reinforced with tritanium?! Fuck me!"

"We're siblings and I'm not into incest, thank you. I already have two girlfriends."

"… _two_?" She asked incredulously.

"Wasn't planning on it, it's just… something that happened."

The cage stopped rising before it was reeled in. "Norton, open the cage!"

Norton shook his head. "No."

"What?"

"You wanna die here?! NOW'S your chance! I'm taking command of this mission again!"

Ron reached into the collapsible door, gripping it tight before pushing, bending the steel and popping rivets. Norton's eyes widened as he ran off.

"He dies. He dies now."

"…can't say that surprises me anymore." Carver muttered, before the group quickly left the cage, and proceeded to chase after Norton to the outside of the facility.

They reached an airlock, when it opened, Isaac and Carver were forced to their knees by Circle troops. Norton was on his knees as well, a gun to the back of his head. Ron and his sister followed suit, but Ron only did it to play along.

"You wouldn't believe the trouble you've saved me," Spoke the religious nutcase himself, grabbing Norton by the head. "Nice work," he said, before looking at them. "Well, here he is: the Marker Killer. Isaac Clarke. And here we are! The Marker Homeworld. You know I must admit I almost didn't think such a place existed. But thanks to your friend, Norton - I've finally found it."

"Well, Pinkerton was right," Carver muttered. "Traitor."

"No, no… all he wants is Isaac," Norton stated. "Carver, the rest of us can go home!"

"Norton, you're an idiot. Unitologists are zealots obsessed with death. They won't let anyone go."

Danik smiled grimly. "Well, our mysterious friend is right, sadly."

Norton sputtered. "What?! Danik, we had a deal!"

"My apologies for deceiving you, Captain."

"And thanks for admitting it, traitor." Ron replayed a vid.

Of the entire conversation.

"Oh, fuck."

"It's not going to do you much good, mister…"

"Pinkerton. And I'm bulletproof."

"We'll see." Danik said, pulling a Plasma Cutter, and proceeded to shoot him in the head…

…which did nothing. "What?!"

"Told you."

Danik shot Isaac, but the new PSG kicked in. "Holy shit, those work?!"

"I made them. Dumb question, boys…" He stood up as the unis backed away in fear. "Did we leave the heat on?"

"The… heat-" Suddenly the ground violently shook. "Oooooohhhhhhh…"

"So, sis…"

"Yes?"

"Wanna kill it?"

"FUCK YES!"

Danik fled, screaming in terror.

Not of the Nexus: of bulletproof Ron and Isaac.

"Alright, Moon-killer, let's murder this fucker!"

The Nexus crashed to the ground, beginning to suck up any Uni troops who hadn't made it to their ships - and also began to suck Isaac's group, who tried to latch on… save for Ron who practically _ran with it_. "EAT ME, MOTHERFUCKER!" He screamed, laughing like a lunatic as he practically _leaped_ inside its mouth.

"RON!"

The Nexus froze before looking downwards.

And roaring in pain.

"He didn't." Carver said.

"He's STILL ALIVE?!"

The Nexus' chest began to push outwards at times, making the four gape in horror and wonder.

Ron was killing it from the inside. And it was about to get…

Messy.

The creature recoiled backwards, as its chest began to look like it was being pushed outward from the inside, wincing in pain, until…

 _SPRUKSH_

A fountain of Necromorphic blood and gore spilled out from its chest, as Ronald Pinkerton leaped out of the creature like a certain horror movie alien.

"…we recorded that, right?"

"Damn straight I did!" Veronica laughed.

Norton smacked Isaac upside the head, knocking him down. "YOU made us come down here! YOU encouraged her! And between Danik's men and whatever the FUCK that was, WHAT CHANCE HAVE WE GOT?!"

"You betrayed us!"

"No, I tried to save us!"

"Captain Robert Norton." Norton looked at Ron, who had something in his hand.

It was a swarmer. Which was trying to get away from him.

"What the fuck are you—"

"Under the EarthGov military code, Chapter 116 article 8, you have been found guilty of treason. Under that code, there is only one sentence." Ron stalked towards him, Norton trying to get away, but Ron could see him through the driving snow.

"You are going to die."

"W-Whoa! Y-you aren't EarthGov!" Norton shouted. "You don't have-"

"Norton… just shut the fuck up," Carver cursed. "Ron?"

"Yes?"

"Sic e'm."

Ron jumped Norton, shoving the swarming thing into his mouth before kicking him towards a pair of dead Fodder.

"And let the sentencing commence."

Norton struggled, but in the end, his thrashing stopped as his RIG flatlined. A moment later, he twitched before grabbing a pair of climbing axes, pulling a Nosferatu and roaring at them, yellow foam pouring from his mouth and eyes.

"And just as sickening as every other time I've seen that happen."

"Meh." Ron pulled out his compression rifle before firing a single bolt into the undead Norton, vaporizing him.

"…well, good news Clarke," Veronica said, "Ellie's single again!"

"…please tell me you're joking."

"But it's true!"

"We'll party later. Let's go. We have a codex to make." Veronica grinned before looking at Ron's gun. "Where can I get one of those?"

* * *

Sonja soldered two wires together, getting the console on the bridge of the _Laehval_ working again. "Finally."

"Sure you should be on this thing, Sonja?" She looked out from the console, seeing as much of Jade as she could, what with the pregnant belly.

"Thalaron radiation killed everything on this ship. It's as safe as the _Ra Cailum_ now."

"I know but… I'm still just worried," Jade sighed, "I know I _shouldn't_ because I _know_ you and Nena, but… I just can't help myself… "

"Well…" She rolled herself out, laying on an antigrav sled before reaching for Jade's hand, getting on her feet.

"We need to talk," Jade spoke up.

"Is this about you wanting to be with Ron?"

"…get out of my head."

"Well, it's all you think about now."

The former CB engineer sighed "Look, I… I really, really like Ron, but… I'd be a jackass to just ignore you and Nena, I… I love you two so much, and Ron too, I just…" she took a calming breath. "If… if either of you have… misgivings about this whole thing, just… just tell me now, and I'll just… call it off or whatever…"

"It's ok."

Jade looked at her pregnant girlfriend. "What?"

"Jade, I was attracted to Ron. …Ok, still am. It started the day we met, with him spouting crazy things and getting things done fast."

Jade stared in shock. "…then why aren't YOU his girlfriend?!"

"He wasn't interested in me, Jade: back then, he was focused on the job and nothing else. It took Cassie popping into his life and basically forcing him to bed to make her his girlfriend. After that, I figured I'd wish them well and move on."

"…and now?" Jade asked.

Sonja paused for a moment, before she chuckled slightly. "Now… Ron has _two_ girlfriends," she said. "It's safe to say this little… odyssey has opened him up to some… polygamy, so… maybe it's not as hopeless as I thought."

"And Nena?"

"She's like you - you do the math."

Jade thought about it for a second. "…Are you telling me that she's attracted to him?!"

"Attracted? No. In love? VERY. We all are."

The 63ed MS pilot laughed silently before picturing them with Annette and Cassie as Ron's… harem.

She would be part of a five-girl harem. IF she could convince Ron.

"…can we… hail the _Damascus_? I'm on a roll: might as well talk to his mom… and our future mother-in-law… while I've still got the nerve."

"Right," Sonja replied. "Let's go take care of that."

The pregnant woman went to the communications console. "Opening channel to the Damascus. Have fun."

* * *

The most intimidating woman in the fleet sat at her desk in her ready room, sipping her overly sugared tea before getting a call from the _Laehval_.

She pressed it before leaning back. "Sela, I'm not in the mood for your shit. You can shove it."

" _Trying to be funny, Captain?_ " Sonja's voice asked over the comms.

"I actually thought Sela had taken her ship back somehow. Something you want, Commander? I have a busy day ahead of me."

" _Captain, other than worrying about your son, you've got nothing to worry about. Speaking of worry…_ "

Another link opened to the _Firestorm_. Ayame grinned as Takeshi appeared on the screen. "Oh, hello, Takeshi."

Takeshi sighed. " _Sonja, any reason you wanted to bring me into a group call with she-who-must-not-be-named?_ "

" _Oh, for amusing reasons_."

" _Oh, for fuck's sake._ "

" _Just so you know, Takeshi, your comms are jammed open: I'm the only one that can turn them off_."

Takeshi glared at Sonja's image on the screen. " _I_ will _find a way to pay you back, Sonja,_ " he growled. " _It won't be right away, and obviously it won't be fatal, but people will be talking about it for_ **centuries** _to come…_ "

" _Only if Ron lets you. Speaking of which… Jade?_ "

Ayame's eyebrow rose. There was a pilot on the Ra Cailum named Jaden Takeo. And when she saw the black-haired woman, she had to laugh.

"Oh, you must've been SERIOUSLY gay for my son to get a gender reassignment!"

" _He's been going_ NUTS _over it the past few days,_ " Takeshi remarked. " _So, what happened,_ Jade _? Finally made up your mind?_ "

" _More like had it made_ for _me when I got bitten by a necromorph Chryssalid,_ " Jade snapped back.

" _What._ "

Ayame laughed. "Oh, how hilarious!"

" _I don't find it funny._ "

"I do. Because you want MY permission to date my son!"

Jade blushed. Right on the nail.

" _I figure your two girlfriends would be joining in,_ " Takeshi remarked with a chuckle. " _I remembered seeing some of the signs with Sonja, and Nena… well, like you, she seems to be attracted to crazy._ "

The blush deepened.

"I never thought I'd see the day where my son would get himself a _harem_. That's rather rare, even in this day and age: everyone wants to just get their soul mate and be done with it. But I tried to urge my husband to take another woman before he died: every day. Guess I know why now."

" _Oh?_ " Takeshi asked.

"Takeshi, my dear, I'm one-half Nietzschean. I was running on instinct to secure more people my husband to bed to sire his progeny. But he didn't want to. Hell, until you married Luna, Takeshi, YOU were on my list of replacements."

Takeshi visibly blanched. She-who-must-not-be-named had considered courting **_HIM?!_**

"Relax, Takeshi. You're safe." She grinned. "Or are you?"

Takeshi's eyes widened before he actually screamed. Ayame's grin simply deepened.

Her son had mastered trollism.

But she taught him everything she knew. "So, Jade, you want my permission to court my son?"

" _Umm… uhh… yeah…_ " Jade managed to stammer out.

"You don't need to seek out my permission. Horatio?"

The old tactical officer piped in through the PA. " _Ma'am?_ "

"Get my son on the horn."

" _Yes, Ma'am,_ " came the reply.

A moment passed before a chirp was heard.

" _Hey mom._ "

" _Wait, MOM?_ "

Ayame and Takeshi blinked. " _Was that a woman?_ "

" _Yeah, Takeshi, meet Veronica Alicia Wilhelmina Pinkerton. My sister_."

Takeshi blinked, before he groaned. " _Of course,_ " he said. " _Your counterpart in this universe is female. IDIC strikes again._ "

"Why, hello, Veronica."

" _And who's this? You sound familiar._ "

"Captain Ayame Virgillia Wilhelmina Pinkerton. Technically, I'm your mother. So, where in the grand scheme of family do YOU lay?"

" _According to Onii-san, I'm eleven years younger than him, but two years older than Riza,_ " she said. " _Well, when we don't count my 200-year stasis nap, that is._ "

Takeshi was silent for a moment, before he muttered, " _It's always something with you people…_ "

" _Deal with it, Take. Veronica, Takeshi Yamato, our brother in law._ "

" _Oh, I'm going to enjoy this one._ "

" _Oh, sweet christ, not another one._ " Takeshi groaned. " _Oh, Ron, speaking of another one, it's about Jade—_ "

" _If it's about Jaden, I don't care. Is he alive?_ "

" _Well… yeah. But—_ "

" _Then there's nothing more to say. I'm busy, mom. Reunion later._ " The comm chirped with Ron leaving the link.

Takeshi sighed. " _On the one hand, I wish he wasn't this stubborn._ " He then grinned. " _On the other, it's going to make Jade's 'reveal' just that much more hilarious, and I need all the pranking ammo I can_ **get**."

"You know that the pranking will only result in a kilij up your ass, right?"

" _It will be worth it._ "

Jade paused. " _...did he say there was a… Veronica Pinkerton now?_ "

"Yup."

" _... WHY! WHY DID I GET GENDERBENT NOW?!_ " Jade screamed in frustration, grabbing her hair. " _IT'S NOT FAIR! IT'S NOT FUCKING FAIR!_ "

"Life sucks, Takeo. But until he gets back, consider yourself blessed. Now if you excuse me, I need to make a crib. I suspect that you'll be giving me grandbabies soon!"

Jade's face was turning so red, she could've been mistaken for a tomato, which only caused her to laugh as she shut off the comm.

* * *

 **Takeshi Yamato: And so our latest running gag continues.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: And it all came down to a coin toss.**

 **Ron the True Fan: It did, actually. This was coming as far back as the Halo arc. The choice was tails, he's driven nuts by his contradictions or heads, he turns into a girl after we think of an excuse. Three guesses how that ended.**

 **RA: *cough cough* Necromorphs *cough cough***

 **117Jorn: Never underestimate the power of a coin toss.**

 **Ron the True Fan: So, will Ayame get her grandbabies? Find out… in a later arc. Ron needs to find out first.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	54. Chapter 54

**Tau Volantis - mountain lifts**

* * *

"I have to say, I enjoyed every second of watching Norton squirm as that thing tore his insides apart."

"…I probably shouldn't say this, but… fuck it. I did, too."

"That's why I like ya, Clarke! Sonja's gonna _love_ to meet you!"

The four reached the lifts, finding RWBY, Santos, the rest of the _Eudora_ crew and Ellie.

"Isaac! …Where's Robert?"

Ron grinned. "Over there, over there and up there." Carver and Isaac glared at Ron. "What, too soon?"

Ellie looked at Ron. "You what?"

"I shoved a necromorph down his throat, watched him turn into one before vaporizing his ass."

"W-Why?!" Ellie screamed, even as Ron activated his RIGlink, mailing her the vid. "Why would you-"

" _Well, Pinkerton was right - Traitor._ " The video began to play from Ron's perspective.

" _No, no… all he wants is Isaac,_ " Norton stated. " _Carver, the rest of us can go home!_ "

" _Norton, you're an idiot. Unitologists are zealots obsessed with death. They won't let anyone go._ "

Danik smiled grimly. " _Well, our mysterious friend is right, sadly._ "

Norton sputtered. " _What?! Danik, we had a deal!_ "

" _My apologies for deceiving you, Captain._ "

" _And thanks for admitting it, traitor._ "

The video ended, and Ellie was left speechless. "I… I can't… b-believe he… "

"He betrayed us for a chance to get you off-planet."

"But the mission is all that matters! He knew that!"

Veronica scoffed. "No. No he didn't. Bastard deserved worse. But my brother is merciful, at least. He didn't suffer as one of them for long." Ellie glared at Veronica, even pulling out her own SMG before Ron pointed his assault phaser at her.

"Rule number one: don't shoot at me."

"Captain?"

"Rule number two: don't shoot at my crew." His right eye turned red as the aggression inhibitor began to 'loosen its' grip', so to speak. "And rule number three: NEVER think of pointing a gun at my family. The end result of all of those is the same. And Isaac would be pissed if I shot your head off, Langford. Don't get pissy because she was telling the truth about your ex-boyfriend."

"Ellie…" Isaac spoke up, "I… I know you cared about him, but… he brought the Uni's here, he endangered everything just… just to get you off world… if he succeeded, we'd all be dead if Ron wasn't there… and the Uni's would've had this planet all to themselves… "

She glared at Isaac, however a few moments passed before her gaze softened. "I… I'm sorry… " she muttered. "I… I should've seen it sooner, but… "

"You we blind. We've got a job to do. Find a lift and climb up. Ron, want to see if you can throw me up?"

Ron grinned evilly.

* * *

Veronica whooped as she was literally hammer-tossed upwards, assisted by the RCS thrusters before she landed on a Fodder's face, breaking its' head off.

"Ten points!"

Screaming was heard soon after as Carver and Isaac followed her trail, so to speak.

Carver shook himself clear of snow. "Holy fuck, man, how strong IS he?!"

Isaac just laughed as he got up, shooting the Fodder and killing it. "Strong enough to toss us up, apparently!"

"How is he-" Veronica and the two men glanced down… and watched as Ron began to hover up towards them. "…I _so_ need a set of those boots…"

"I'm a cheating motherfucker!" Ron laughed. "I just got these things to work with my RIG!"

"No shit, Pinkerton!"

Isaac chuckled wholeheartedly.

By this point, half the crew should have been dead.

Instead, they were all alive.

"RWBY, status." Gunfire was heard through the RIGlink as Crescent Rose's report echoed.

" _There's another crab down here and it's not the friendly one, boss man! A little help?!_ "

"Get to the lift! I'll pull you up if I have to!"

"Hang on, I'll get help!" Veronica said, as she put fingers in her mouth, and whistled.

"Veronica, it's not gonna-" Ron began, before there was a loud roar before - in the distance - they could already see the Snow Beast Veronica rode from before rapidly running towards them. "…huh… "

"What?"

"Nothing. Just a family trait. Animals love me. You should see me with a T. rex."

"…As in Tyrannosaurus rex?"

"Yeah, we brought them back to life. Took two centuries, but they got their own world to themselves."

Veronica grinned before they jumped down the mountain.

"You're all fucking nuts."

"I wanna go!" Veronica shouted.

* * *

Ruby dodged a flurry of bone shards and answered with a barrage of fire rounds, all hitting their target.

Blake dashed forward, letting off a pair of aura slashes that took off several of the Snow Beast's tentacles, only to be kicked back by the beast.

"Bumblebee!" Ruby called out.

As Blake flew past Yang, she tossed her Gambol's chain scythe form. Much like the time they fought that Paladin, but only with their roles reversed, Yang swung, bringing Blake around in a powerful slash with her sheathe to take off one of the beast's legs.

It roared out in pain, but before either side could do anything, another familiar roar was heard.

Ruby groaned. "Not another one…"

"ONWARD, NOBLE STEED!"

"Wait, WHAT?"

Another Snow Beast descended from above, crashing into the injured one. Only this one had a rider.

"HOW'S IT FEEL?! DOESN'T FEEL SO GREAT, HUH? WELL NOW YOU KNOW!" Veronica shouted as Beasty pounded the other necromorph.

"We got a friendly!?"

"Yup! My brother managed to take control of this one! And I'm keeping it!"

The Beast tore into the unfriendly necromorph, like a cuttlefish attacking a crab, with loud cracks as the shell broke, the unfriendly Beast roaring in pain as it died.

Again.

Due to the complicated nature of necromorphs and zombies in general, we'll just use 'killed' and 'died' like they were alive in the first place.

Beasty stomped on the corpse(?) and roared in triumph. Veronica joined him.

"YEAH! TAKE THAT YOU FUCKING MOON!" She flipped off the moon with both her hands, laughing.

Weiss turned to Ruby. "Jade would _so_ be in love if he wasn't a girl again."

The little reaper giggled.

"So… why hasn't anyone told him yet?"

"Because as long as the answer is 'Takeo's alive', he doesn't give two fucks about the details."

It was certainly true: history had shown that as long as the job was done, he didn't care HOW it was done. Details were not something he was interested in when shit needed to be done unless he was looking directly at it.

And in the grand scheme of things, Jade just wasn't important to the war on Tau Volantis.

"Well, now that that's over, let's head back inside." Yang declared.

"Which means Beasty won't be able to follow." Veronica pouted. "Well, it just means he can ruin some days." She slid off her mount and patted it's left leg. "Go forth and bring ruin to those who aren't us!"

Beasty roared and bounded off. Screams were heard soon after.

* * *

Up the mountain, Ron found the lift cable before brute-forcing it down the cliff, falling with a loud clatter.

Isaac couldn't find it hard to believe that the man could benchpress large shuttlecraft with the shit he pulled.

Seriously, he was getting desensitized to shit like this.

RWBY plus V and E hopped into the cable car, and once Ron was sure they were in, he started pulling them up. By himself.

"I'm not even surprised."

Another roar came down from above. Ron swore. "Shit! Girls, hold on, we got another Snow Beast!"

Carver swore a quick blue streak. "This planet just _loves_ to fuck us over, doesn't it?!"

"Yeah, it didn't like you in the other timeline, either!" He looped the cable around in his arms as fast as he could while the others opened fire on the now-sighted Beast.

" _Slow down! That motor's got to be burning out by now!_ "

"Ellie, Ron is literally pulling you up! That bastard is tugging on the cable and lifting you all!"

 _"…how strong ARE you?!"_

"Strong enough to lift a thirty thousand ton runabout!" The captain ground out. "Shut up and shoot that thing!" Ron tossed Isaac his compression rifle.

The engineer caught it in stride, brought it up to his shoulder, sighted in, and laced the beast with fire in under a second.

The Beast, which was climbing across the rock face to get to them, roared in pain and fired bone shards in retaliation.

Carver dove for cover, but Isaac faced the barrage head on, letting his personal shields tank the projectiles.

"Isaac, I just set the rifle for high density, aim for its legs!"

The marker-killer braced himself, sighted in, and fired. A beam as large as his head emerged from the dual prongs, cutting off the Beast's forward left leg and causing the rifle to buck in Isaac's shoulder like a civilian hunting rifle.

He stabilized himself and sighted in again, blasting off the beast's other left leg. Having lost two of it's anchor points, the beast slid from its perch and into the chasm below, screaming as it fell.

"It'll be back."

"You sure?"

Ron coiled the cable around his arms again before nodding. "You didn't kill it. And necromorphs have a history of putting themselves back together."

Isaac knew that all too well. He killed over a thousand necromorphs on the Ishimura.

In excess of 3000, actually. And even counting people that made it up to the ship from the colony, that was a LITTLE too high.

So they put themselves back together over time. Something he knew and _loathed_.

Yet another roar came down from below. "And looks like it found the other Snow beast down there and is grabbing some new parts. FUCK!"

The cable car came into view. Unfortunately, so did Snow beast, which now had six limbs. Isaac began to open fire again, but time, the replying fire of bones actually threatened to overpower his shields.

"FUCK!" Ron groaned before tugging and pulling the cage all the way up, throwing the occupants on the snowy ground. In one smooth motion, he hacked through the cables with his sword and jumped at the Beast.

"HAVE AT THEE, MOTHERFUCKER!"

The two fell downwards as Ron crashed into it, dislodging it. "Like fuck!" Veronica jumped after him, firing her RCS thrusters to catch up.

"He's fucking nuts! And she's fucking nuts, too!"

"That's a Pinkerton for ya," Blake muttered, "Nothing but raw insanity through and through."

"You sure they'll be fine?"

Blake smiled knowingly.

"Perfectly."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the research facility.

"Ok, that was VERY stupid. Nothing but the undead the whole way." Terrified roaring was heard before the Snow Beast was seen, again, only in the air, flying towards a crane.

And while rusted and decayed, it was impaled by the boom, killing it.

"Hooooly SHIT!" Isaac shouted. "Just how far did he throw that thing?"

"Uhhh…. Pretty far… " Yang muttered, looking at the corpse "Geez, I almost feel sorry for it… "

"I wouldn't recommend it!" Ruby looked down the mountain, seeing Ron and Veronica on a lower path, the former just fine while his sister was VERY tired.

"I hate fighting those things." A LOUDER and more familiar roar to the others was heard approaching fast from below. "You must be fucking joking. How many Berserkers was that ship carrying?!"

The Berserker in question rocketed up from the rock face, but that wasn't the problem.

The problem was that it was black. An ENHANCED Berserker.

"Get in the facility! We'll deal with this fucking thing!"

The team ran, moving as quickly as they could from the Enhanced Necro-Zerker, firing their weapons at the beast, but they may as well of been throwing rocks at it as it simply shrugged them off, running towards them.

Another roar was heard from behind them. "FUCK. TWO of them?!"

"You got a LOT of explaining to do, brother!"

"Later!"

Two Necro Berzerkers was a problem. One Enhanced necro Berserker is stronger than even a Berserker Queen, and if you remember the first Star Trek Odyssey, the Queen was able to fight Ron almost one on one.

Ron was facing _two_ of them.

Ron activated his RIG's comm system. "Pinkerton to _Ra Cailum_! Respond right the fuck now, Corpie!"

"Ra Cailum _here, what's the situation?_ "

"Two enhanced Necromorph Berzerkers! Orbital Bombardment! NOW!"

 _"Paint the target. By the way, about Jade—"_

"Not interested! Danger close! FIRE AT WILL!"

* * *

In the distance, Danik was trying to reorganize his men.

Out of the 2000 loyal soldiers of the Circle, only a handful were left, the rest being in orbit or in the gunships.

"As soon as we're rearmed, I want a full on assault on the research facility! Isaac Clarke MUST DIE! ALTMANN BE PRAIS—" Before he could finish the line, Danik saw two columns of light impact the area near the labs.

"What the hell was that?"

* * *

"HOLY FUCK!" The EarthGov citizens shouted as they watched the skies light up in an orange blaze as two pillars of energy crashed right into the Berserkers - who were withered away into ashes moments later.

"Ohhhh, Toasty!" Ruby smiled, pulling out a stick with Marshmallows on it, putting it up against the blaze.

"…Where the hell did you get the stick? Where the hell did you get the marshmallows? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!" Carver shouted.

"We're part of his crew." Blake explained, as if it answered everything, which it did. "Insanity spreads."

Creaking metal was heard below the two Pinkertons, Ron falling down into a prefab while his sister held onto a piece of rebar.

"Get inside! I'll get him and we'll make our way to you!"

"Occkkkyyy!" Ruby waved as she stuffed her mouth full of marshmallows.

"Don't speak with your mouth full, Ruby!" Weiss admonished.

* _Gulp_ *

"Sorry!"

Veronica jumped down the hole after her brother. She just got her family back: practically invincible or not, she wasn't losing him.

* * *

The rest of the team entered the labs, going through decontamination before entering a lab with a table with manipulator arms and a frame they were attached to.

"Rosetta's lab. And THAT is an assembly station."

Isaac nodded. "So we're here to assemble a Codex. Makes sense."

Ellie climbed into the control booth, looking at the data readouts. "…No. According to this… we're here to assemble Rosetta! They cut her into pieces?! Oh my god!"

Carver, now more used to the insanity, simply shook his head. "Fuck this day!"

A second later, they heard Ron's muted, but still yelling voice reply. "Fuck this planet, fuck the Sovereign Colonies, fuck the Unitologists and **_fuck the fucking fuckers_**!"

"Glad to hear your still alive," Blake said with a smirk as she activated her RIGlink. "We're at the Rosetta lab - but it looks like we need to collect missing pieces of her around the base. Once we put it together, we'll flip it on and… see what happens."

" _I'll be making my way up. I lost Veronica, but her RIG is transmitting lifesigns, so she's not dead. Search the facility, kill everything. Bring me the loot_."

"Yar, aye, capt'n!"

Santos looked at Ruby. "Did you seriously just do the whole pirate thing?"

"Yeah, so?" Ruby asked, tilting her head to the side. "It's fun!"

Carver just shook his head. "Crazy…" he muttered. "The lot of them are crazy…"

* * *

In the barracks of the 163rd Reapers, Ron was busy smashing heads.

Heads without bodies and that had tentacles coming out of their necks, so necromorphs.

"Kick the baby!" Ron booted another head into a wall, killing it as it cracked in half. Another slasher dropped out of a vent, but as soon as it saw him, it fled into another room before it was hacked apart by something worse.

A pissed off woman with a sword.

"Heads up!" She called out as Veronica swung her sword and cleaved off the head of the Slasher, before slicing it down the middle. "Fuck that felt SO GOOD!"

"Don't like these guys?"

"I was in the Reapers Battalion! 99% of the guys here tried to rape me!" She then sliced another Reaper apart by where their family jewels _would_ have been.

"…Now I feel _NO_ regrets killing them!" Ron growled as he grabbed one slasher, ripping off its arms before stabbing it with them. "Who was the 1%?"

"My boyfriend Jaden and the other girls!"

Ron came to a sudden and abrupt halt. "…Your boyfriend was named Jaden."

"Staff Sergeant Jaden Takeo! At least, before those THINGS turned him into a necromorph." She then fired her cutter at Ron's head, but it was absorbed by the shields.

"…seriously?"

"Look, I'm not sure if I'm signal-proof or not anymore. Let's just regroup with the others, please."

Ron nodded, forgetting about the shot. She was justifyingly paranoid about it. Then he grinned. "I have a Jaden Takeo on my ship. Want me to introduce you?"

Veronica actually paused for a moment, looking at Ron incredulously. "Wait… seriously?" She asked.

Ron activated his RIG, showing an image of the Engineer from the 00-verse. "He look familiar to you?" He asked.

Veronica's eyes were wide, and for one solid minute she just stared at the young man's face. "Jaden… " she whispered, looking at the image with a guilty look on her face.

"I'll introduce you when we get the hell out of here. Nice sword. Is that a khepesh?"

Veronica looked at the sickle sword in her hand. "Titanium construction. Not standard issue, but it's a family tradition. You follow it, too?"

"Mom's got a modified longsword/rapier hybrid, my sister… our sister has a scythe. Come on. Sooner we activate the machine and draw the other moons here, sooner we can have a proper reunion."

"…this is gonna be one _hell_ of a family reunion." Veronica laughed, as she followed Ron through the rest of the facility.

* * *

The pair finally got back to the main part of the facility before the PA kicked in. " _Testing. Testing. Hello, Isaac, Captain Pinkerton, assorted people_."

"What the fuck do you want, Danik?"

" _I know you're out there, crawling around. Now, you're probably thinking that I'm a religious zealot, mindlessly following the whim of an angry god_."

"Gee, fuck for brains, what gave us _that_ impression, that fact that you murder people for the genocidal moons?"

" _Now, that's an easy mistake to make and I do not fault you for it. Not at all. But it would surprise you that I am a man of science, a man of reason and fact, cause and effect_."

"You think alien devices that transform people into zombies is the key to evolution," Veronica deadpanned. "Where's the fucking science in _that_?"

Ron hmmed. "Sis."

"Yeah?"

"Is there something, I don't know… we can use to fuck up his day?"

"Well, there is the fuckton of chlorine gas we use to decon."

"Chlorine? That's gas that eats your face."

"I know. I said the same thing!" Carver shouted, bumping Isaac.

Ron smiled. "…Where's the gas valves?"

"I believe we can control them from the Sterilization Booth," She informed, grinning. "Just activate it and poof - face-melting gas for every one of those Uni fucks!"

* * *

In the lab, Ellie suddenly had her RIGlink turned on. " _Hey, Danik. You're a scientist_."

" _Ah, captain. And yes, I am_."

" _My sister would like to ask you a question or two. I personally want to kill you right now, but we're curious as to your motives_."

" _Ah, finally you wish to understand!_ " Danik spoke, almost sounding happy. " _Go ahead and ask away._ "

"So, why does Marker zombies equal evolution?" Veronica asked. "Because that's not how it works."

Ellie rolled her eyes. "God."

" _Simple… as my research has shown, there is evidence to suggest humanity evolved thanks_ to _the Marker._ " Danik informed, " _When the Black Marker crashed into Earth, wiping out the Dinosaurs, it acted as a catalyst towards our own evolution. These Markers have shown to promise life after death! A rebirth for all of mankind through the promise of the Markers! Transcending death itself!_ "

" _So… all based on religious bullshit. See, the Markers are nothing more than the conduits, radio towers so to speak, for something much more insidious. We're trying to allow our species to naturally evolve. YOU are being used as a pawn. So… sorry, buddy. At least this'll be merciful compared to the murders you've committed_."

"What the hell are you—"

A computerized voice piped up. " _Initiating stabilization system_."

" _IT'S GAS THAT EATS YOUR FAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCEEEEEEEEE!_ " Veronica cried out, laughing like a maniac.

The screaming before it turned to gurgling was enough to make Ellie sick. To a point.

They were unitologists that were murdering innocent people, who had done nothing but be born.

No longer. Now they would die and hurt no one else.

"Seriously, fucking gas that eats your face?!" Carver protested. "What the fuck is WRONG with those two?!"

"Hey, it works!" Isaac said, sliding in another piece of Rosetta into place. "Means we save more ammo!"

" _Ok, fun's over: beam everyone that's not needed to the_ Eudora. _RWBY, you too._ "

"Captain! Come on!"

" _No buts, girls: back to the_ Ra Cailum. _This is for us and us alone._ "

"It's probably for the best," Isaac said, "Once we turn this thing on… no telling what it's gonna do."

"I know EXACTLY what it's going to do, Clarke. Do it."

He began shifting the pieces around, remaking the block.

After a few minutes, he had it. "Well, there she is: meet Rosetta."

"Isaac, it's not a she. It's an it! Rosetta's an alien!"

Carver looked at the remade block. "What? What's THAT supposed to mean?"

"It means they used an alien to make a Codex to work the alien machine. That's clever."

"Well… Isaac, start her up." Ellie said, gesturing to the device. "Sooner we do this, the sooner we can finish it."

Isaac activated the machine, reanimating Rosetta's brain for one brief moment.

But that moment was enough to send them a psionic shockwave.

And send the real message.

The machine wasn't the source of the Marker signal.

It froze the planet, stopped a convergence event.

And froze the moon. Both Pinkertons were right: the Moon was the source!

The Machine didn't need to be turned off, it needed to _stay on_.

And then, the _Ra Cailum_ and her fleet could destroy it, and the rest of the moons.

The psionic presence however, was too much for the regular humans to handle - and moments later, they collapsed unconscious.

* * *

Veronica keeled over, barely remaining conscious as the psionic wave hit her. "Hey! Ronnie, stay with me!"

Veronica looked at whoever was holding her. "…Ja..den…? Is that… You?" Only Jaden called her that.

The only one in the SCAF that was able to take her insanity and ever thrived on it.

She loved him so much.

"I'm not Jaden, sis. Come on. That Nietzschean brain of yours barely took that psionic shockwave. The fuck were you people doing two centuries ago?"

Veronica blinked several times, her vision refocusing as she took in her surroundings, and noticed - not Jaden - but her new Brother, standing over her, helping her to her feet.

"R… Ron." She muttered, wincing slightly as she grabbed her head. "Ugh… what the fuck hit me…?"

"Psionic shockwave."

"How come you weren't affected?"

"The right half of my brain is a positronic computer. While the left half is busy recovering, the right's taking over everything. Come on, we have to get to the lab. My tricorder's picking up movement, meaning Danik's on the move."

"Right… right… " Veronica nodded after being helped up. "Sorry, that… came out of nowhere… lead the way."

And what the hell was a Nietzschean?

The pair ran through the halls, reaching the lab with the doors opening to reveal a VERY pissed off Isaac. "WHOA, CLARKE! It's us!"

"They took the Codex and Ellie! They're on their way to the alien city!"

"Well, then…" Ron tapped his combadge. " _Ra Cailum_ , beam down the Murder Kit."

 _"Whoa, boss, WHAT?! You locked those things away for a reason!"_

"Beam. Them. DOWN. NOW!"

A shower of light deposited a crate filled with weapons, which Ron kicked open. "These are the most dangerous things in the UFP arsenal." He tossed Veronica what looked like a rocket launcher and a modified phaser rifle before giving Carver a modified phaser pulse weapon with a bayonet.

"I had them locked away because they're so fucking dangerous they can eat through the hull of anything up to neutronium. But now, I'm fucking MAD. EVERYTHING DIES!"

Veronica looked at the weapon, finding the activation switch as it lit up with energy. She grinned.

"Then everything shall die then." She said.

He gingerly handed a small weapon to Isaac. "The fuck is this thing?"

"It's a miniature version of a Planet Killer's antiproton beam."

"Anti—ANTIPROTON?!" Veronica did a double take. "This thing fires antiprotons?!"

"Pure antiprotons. It will destroy anything it touches. Organic, inorganic… doesn't matter. My personal shields can only take one burst. Cruiser-level shields I may have, but cruiser-level power, I don't."

Isaac looked at the weapon in his hands, and smiled. "This… is going to be _fun_ finally… " he said smirking.

* * *

Takeshi sat on the bridge of the _Ra Cailum_ , being on his shift as alarms went off.

"Uh, Commander?" Takeshi looked at Kim before gesturing to his fourth pip. "Right, Captain, whatever, still getting used to this shit. I'm picking up a massive subspace distortion, akin to when the Eudora came out of shockspace, but… MUCH bigger!"

"Define bigger."

Kim simply switched the external camera to a different view, and Takeshi stood up in shock.

Entering the system were over sixty _moons,_ all biological in nature.

They were hungry.

And the Brethren moons were here.

"Oh, FUCK."

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: They were coming. They are hungry. And now they want us to _make them whole_.**

 **117Jorn: WHERE'S THE DEATH STAR WHEN YOU NEED IT?!**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Blown up! But don't worry, we got something just as effective! Man, killing things with a Big Fucking Gun is SO satisfying.**

 **Ruby: Huh?**

 **Ron the True Fan: He's talking about the _Laehval's_ thalaron cascading biogenic pulse weapon. Which kills biological material of all kinds.**

 **Blake: Insidious, but it's a good anti-Moon weapon.**

 **RA: Also, this. *Tosses Ruby a BFG 9000* Just point… *Helps aim gun towards a flood of necromorphs* … and click.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Too bad we don't have an Arc-en-Ciel available. Man, when MGLN goes for ship-based weapons of Mass Destruction, they don't mess around.**

 **Ron the True Fan: Here we go, readers. Cry of the Ancients!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	55. Chapter 55

**USS Ra Cailum**

* * *

"We are so screwed."

60 moon sized zombies were coming.

They were hungry.

"Ok, WHY the hell are they here?! They never showed up in the Dead Space canon! …Well, after Awakening, they showed up at Earth—"

Jade blew a horn to shut everyone on the bridge up. "SHUT IT! It's doesn't matter how or why! They're here now! What we need to do is KILL them before they cause any more damage!"

" _I have an option for that,_ " Hayate informed. " _My ship has some 31st-century Federation tech, including a weapon that makes it a decent sledgehammer. It's not the fastest-firing, and I don't know if the things are too massive for one shot to do them in, but until we can get those thalaron generators working, it can likely slow them down a bit._ "

"What kind of weapon?" Takeshi asked.

" _You know that project R &D's been working on?_" Hayate asked. " _The thing that is intended to one-shot Borg Tactical Cubes?_ "

"The Positron Cannon?" Takeshi asked. "Yeah, I know of it—always thought the _Ra Cailum_ needed one. Why do you… oh, no _way…_ "

" _Yep!_ " Hayate practically _chirped_. " _It's been completed and perfected, too, and is even rated against_ Planet-Killers _. If anything's going to make a decent sized dent in those things aside from thalaron radiation, it's going to be that._ "

"Ok, good idea, but the signal—"

" _We can handle it, Commander Takeo._ "

"ANYWAY, we have to keep them from leaving. Doesn't matter if we have the ability to kill them if they're just going to run. And it's Captain."

Sonja, leaning back on a bulkhead, huffed as she stood straight. "Shockspace and slipspace are alike, and they both use subspace. A subspace inhibitor field will work wonders in stopping them in their tracks. Long enough to pulse their asses. A LOT."

"I'm on it!" Jade called out, running for the turbolift. "Gonna have to build a shitton of them, but I have an idea!" The lift closed behind her.

Ayame looked at Sonja. " _Redouble your efforts. Get that weapon working._ "

"The _Lieset's_ crew is working on it. If we have to, we'll tear the generator out before installing it on the flagship: they might not be built in, but they have the emitters as a backup, just in case."

" _Keep your crews from going mad. That signal will affect everyone not a member of this crew. It can't affect crazy, thankfully. Until then… do your jobs._ " The hologram of the eldest Pinkerton faded away before Takeshi breathed in.

"She's GONE."

"For now." At the reminder from his wife, Takeshi sobbed.

* * *

Jade was thankful the _Ra Cailum_ was basically a flying construction ship.

The ship could build starbases, but it also created comm networks. And three cargo bays were FULL of the damn things.

And they could be used as subspace inhibitors. But they had to be modified correctly, and she couldn't do it by herself…

…or could she?

She dumped several mobile emitters she had carried, and activated them one-by-one, and emerging from each emitter… was herself, a holographic image of Jade Takeo.

"Okay girls!" Jade called out, clapping her hands, grabbing the attention of the four dozen Holo-Jade's. "You know what to do! I want every one of the comm networks on this boat modified into subspace inhibitors as soon as fucking possible! Jade's one through forty will begin work with me. Jade's 41 to 46 are gonna grab more emitters so we can get more of us! Now move it!" She clapped her hands. "Get moving girls, Ron's counting on us!"

"HAI!" The small army of Jade's called out as the immediately got working.

* * *

The Circle was screaming in terror.

The reason?

Ronald Pinkerton, Isaac Clarke, John Carver and Veronica Pinkerton.

They were _slaughtering_ Danik's forces in droves.

So much so that the man was shitting himself. Repeatedly.

"Sir, they're killing all of our men! We're being slaughtered!" The comms were full of panicked exclamations.

"I've noticed! Where the hell did that glorious bastard come from?!"

"DANIK!"

Speak of the devil. At the top of the silo was Ron, holding his sword.

And looking directly at Danik. Ellie laughed in spite of the guns pointed at her. "You're going to die, Danik. You're going to die, the Markers are going to be stopped and you are going to LOSE!"

" _This_ is not over!" Danik growled, yanking Ellie up as they continued towards the center of the city to deactivate the Machine. "The Promise of the Markers will be fulfilled! "

Even if he was doubting because of what he saw in the facility.

* * *

A squad of four could not best an army.

At least, as long as it wasn't THIS squad.

Isaac Clarke, the Moon-killer, survivor of the _Ishimura_ , the sprawl and killer of the TV Moon. So many necromorphs died by his hand, there was no way to count.

Veronica Alicia Wilhelmina Pinkerton, last survivor of the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces, was a Reaper of men, killing thousands of humans and necromorphs alike. Only Isaac was better at killing them then she.

John Carver was a troubled man, but a skilled soldier, as skilled as anyone could be fighting the necromorphs. He destroyed his family, but he would avenge their deaths by Danik's hands.

And the cherry on top was Ronald Peter Albert Pinkerton, the Other.

The Circle was _beyond_ fucked. They just kept denying their inevitable fate.

"I really fucking hate saying this," Ron said, as he aimed his Antiproton rifle. "But Give up! RESISTANCE IS FUTILE MOTHERFUCKERS!"

The two Pinkerton's advanced forward, firing their rifles wildly at the Circle members as they tried - and failed - to show any form of resistance against the killing machines, as Isaac and Carver brought up the rear.

A loud, almost musical sound was heard as Veronica stopped. "No."

"What?" Two circle soldiers were thrown, one, somehow, making a Wilhelm Scream, which actually caused Ron to laugh before they saw a necromorph towering above them.

It was one of the aliens.

It was strangely beautiful, lanky if heavy, with holes that produced the tones.

"Ron… I hate killing these things."

"I understand why." Ron sighed. "I'll ask Ryu if he can fix what the Markers did. But for now… Shoot to kill."

Veronica sighed, before she took aim and fired at the former inhabitant of Tau Volantis, the Antiproton weapon easily incinerating its flesh into a mess of ashes as it roared in pain - before a second blast from Ron put it out of its misery.

"Rest in peace. The Moons will fucking PAY for this. DANIK! If you're hearing this, prepare to die! PAINFULLY!"

* * *

Hayate stood on the bridge of the _Examia_ , as the ship closed into firing range of the closest moon.

She knew the dangers, obviously, having been briefed on Dead Space, but she and her crew were among the best of the best. Crazy people might have been immune to the signal, or at least unable to be affected by it, but she had trained for years to control her thoughts and emotions. And every one of her crew was similar.

Besides, contrary to popular and misguided belief, the _Ra Cailum's_ crew were not the best.

 _Hers_ was.

And now she could prove it to everyone. Because she was getting tired of hearing about Ron's 'achievements'.

'Oh, he took down Sela. He killed Gaul. He ended the Iconian War'.

No more. She would prove that she was the better commander, the better leader, that the insanity of the _Ra Cailum_ was a hindrance, not an asset! Forget the Admiralty!

 _Examia_ dropped out of her microjump, within range of the closest moon.

Hayate smirked and turned to her first officer. "You may fire when ready."

The temporal ship fired her positron cannon, the matter-annihilating blast tearing into the moon's organic hide, burning a massive crater into it.

But it did very little: out of the over 120 billion tons of necrotic flesh making up the moon, it only burned a fraction away.

And that only made matters _worse_.

 _"We are all awake now. Awake and hungry. But where is it? Take us home, Hayate. Make us Whole._ "

"What the hell?! I thought the signal was being filtered out by the—"

" _We can feel you. Your origins. Your home. Bring us there. Make us whole. MAKE US WHOLE!_ "

The equivalent of a psionic quantum torpedo went off in the minds of the _Examia's_ crew, and despite their mental fortitude and training, it was all for nothing. Most of the crew succumbed to the signal, turning on each other. Those few who didn't, Hayate included, fell to their knees or passed out.

"Computer!" Hayate ground out through the pain. "Return to fleet and activate anesthizine gas dispensers!"

" _Make us whole. Make us whole! MAKE! US! WHOLE!"_

* * *

"Stupid bitch didn't see that coming. And here I thought she was part of Starfleet Intelligence." Cassie commented.

The 31st Century ship turned and flew back to the fleet at full impulse, the Moons' top speed barely being one eighth.

"Tell me those jammers are online and that we can just vaporize these monsters with the biogenic pulse weapon, please." Takeshi pleaded.

" _Working on it!"_ Jade shouted across the comm line. " _We're working as fast as we can!_ "

Take blinked. "We?"

"She's using holograms to speed up the construction of the jammers. _Galactica's_ raptors are preparing to launch once they're ready."

"…I shouldn't be surprised. Get Ron on the horn!"

* * *

Blubbering was heard as three Circle soldiers were killed in milliseconds by the fastest of all necromorphs: the Twitcher.

But as fast as they were, Ron was faster, as when it moved to attack him, he activated his motion accelerator and hacked off its' arms and legs before walking past it.

It spun around, not realizing that its' arms and legs were on backwards until it fell apart.

"…how the fuck did you—"

"It's what I do, Isaac."

Veronica extended her hand, Ron responding by handing her his blade.

"Watch and learn, boys."

Another Twitcher rushed forward. Veronica was there to meet it, and the blade flashed out almost faster than even Ron could track. A second later, Veronica kept walking as the Twitcher blinked, before it promptly dissolved into a shower of gore and skin.

Carver was trying not to throw up.

"Fuck, I thought the inhuman thing was _his_ shtick!"

"What, you thought the Twitchers are the only ones to pull the whole reverse-stasis trick? I invented it back during the war when I was in the 163rd."

"Twitchers?" Isaac looked at the remains of the necromorph. "It fits. Twitchy bastards."

Two Circle soldiers looked at Veronica. "Oh, FUCK! I thought that bitch looked familiar! That's the Sovereign Reaper!"

Veronica smirked. "My reputation precedes me."

"Must be a scary lady."

"Higher body count than anyone else in the SCAF. Even my boyfriend's was lower."

The two ran, screaming. "And I specialized in killing with a sword." She said, tossing Ron's sword back to him and twirling her own.

"Now you KNOW we're siblings!"

The two charged, blades gleaming in their enemies' blood, and they were thirsty for more.

Carver's expression was one of mixed horror and hopelessness. "…We are surrounded by insanity."

Isaac patted his shoulder. "Welcome to my life."

Purple energy warped as a Ethereal necromorph ported in, Isaac raising his plasma cutter.

" _Do not fire, great destroyer… I wish only to speak._ "

"What, the fucking necromorphs can talk now?"

" _I am not truly here. I am above._ "

Isaac huffed. "You're the moon, talking through the necromorph."

" _We propose a trade, destroyer_."

Isaac had to laugh. The Moons called him 'destroyer'?

…they were fucking terrified of him. He was the only one that could destroy the Markers.

They feared him. And they feared the changes the Markers gave him.

"Just out of curiosity, what is it you are wanting?" he asked, deadpan.

" _Leave us alone. Humanity will be left in peace. Forever._ "

"And why the hell should I believe you?"

" _You destroyed two markers. Your mind, your very being makes you immune to the Marker signal unless you are close to one of us_."

So they were afraid that if Isaac had a child, which would have children, and eventually, given at least two, three or four thousand years, a number of humans would be immune to the signal.

"Let me think about it." Isaac fired his cutter at the Ethereal, dismembering it in quick succession, leaving only the head attached to the body, the necromorph screaming as the Moon roared at the Moon-killer.

"No deal." He fired one more shot.

* * *

"If it's not Clarke, it's some SCAF soldier that somehow survived the necromorphs AND the passage of time! What's next?!"

The other unitologists had no answer for their leader. However, another being did, as it arrived in a flash of light.

"Oh, how about a man from another universe who was assimilated by cyber-zombies, freed, and is also part-superhuman from yet another reality?" the being asked rhetorically. "Or an omnipotent being from the reality where said cyber-zombies exist?"

"And just who the hell are you?" one of the unis asked.

"Moi?" the being replied. "You may call me… Q."

"…Q."

"Yes. Q. I am omnipotent, omnipresent—"

"Obnoxious."

Q looked at Ellie. "Oh, I like you already. You remind me of Kathy. Before age caught up with her. Shame."

Danik pointed his SMG at Q, but it disappeared in a flash of light, replaced by a blackened banana.

"How—"

"I'm basically god. Hisanaga might claim the contrary, but in a fight between one of us and him, he would lose. It would just be a… what's that human term for losing everything when you win?"

"Pyrrhic victory," Ellie commented.

"THAT'S the one! Now, I just came here to see how my favorite Starfleet captain, since Jean-Luc retired and Kathy took up a desk job, is doing. Though he's going to beat the living crap out of me if he sees me talking to you. God or not, that man knows how to cause PAIN."

"Wait…" Ellie muttered. "Jean-Luc… Kathy… you're _that_ Q. From Star Trek."

"Indeed!" Q preened. "It's always amusing how many universes have considered me as fiction."

Danik scoffed as he threw away the banana and took another SMG from one of his escorts. "I don't care about you. Stay out of our way."

"Oh, I intend to. I'll just let him deal with you as I figure I know how this is going to end."

Ellie was confused. "I thought you were all-knowing and all-seeing."

"I am. But due to him being the product of something from two different universes sent to one more by five different godlike powers and practically family to the Sorcerer of the Far Gates, predicting him is impossible." Q shuddered. "I'd know. How he makes produce so PAINFUL I can never know."

At that point, an orange beam fired from the distance and impacted a Uni. "Q!"

"And he thinks I'm helping you."

"If you THINK of helping that fuck, I will find ways of making you suffer that make what I did with that crate of apples merciful!"

At that, Q screamed before flashing out.

"…is anyone else wondering what he did with a crate of apples that resulted in Q being scared shitless?" No one answered the question because they were too terrified of the man approaching their position, leaving the others behind at that.

"Fuck this shit, we're out!" About a dozen Unis broke off and ran for a ship.

"Smart bastards. They know when to run. Unlike you."

Danik grabbed Ellie, putting the gun to her head. "Stop! Or I'll kill her!"

"Danik… I don't give a fuck about Ellie. I could kill her if I wanted to, just so I can kill you first. I want you, and I want you dead."

Danik quickly realized that he was fucking with someone MORE insane than him!

As proved when he pulled a out cricket and shot Ellie in the chest.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Danik shouted and dropped the body, pulling a SMG and dual wielding the weapons, hosing fire down as his remaining troops opened fire as one.

Ron took it all while Veronica, Carver and Isaac took to cover. One sight made Danik pause, however.

Instead of raging at the captain, Danik saw Isaac _smirking._

"She's alive." Ron declared, now shielding Ellie's unconscious form. "What, thought I'd piss off Isaac by killing his girl?" He pulled out his rifle. "This is set to VAPORIZE."

Danik began to panic as he looked at the four armed and MAD people. "It's over. Now, would you kindly slit your throat so we can configure the machine and kill the moon? I have better things to do, like solve this universe's resource problem."

"Uhhh… Uhhhh…" An idea popped into Danik's head. "Focus fire on Isaac and Carver!" He called out, and raising his hand, he fired off two stasis bolts at Ron and Veronica.

The two bolts hit their target, and Ron had a comically slow face of outrage on. Still, it would give Danik enough time to turn it off as the two lost the codex, Danik managing to get his hands on it before placing it squarely in the machine, twisting it to shut it down.

In hindsight, he would come to see this as his last mistake.

His first being fucking with Isaac Clarke. Seriously, when something tries to kill Isaac, if fails. Every time.

The Hunter, the Leviathan, the Urchin, the Hive Mind and all the shit on the Sprawl, INCLUDING his own insanity?

All failed.

His second was that he pissed off Veronica Pinkerton.

His third and final mistake was that he pissed off Ronald Pinkerton.

All mistakes meant _death_.

"Finally! Let the evolution be—" A massive rock impaled Danik as the effect wore off, allowing the two to return to normal time.

"FUCK, I hate getting hit with…" Veronica noticed the very… angry moon, if you could describe it as such. "—WHOA, that moon is pissed!"

"So it is, little sister. So… four on one."

"The one is a fucking MOON, Pinkerton!"

Isaac laughed. "Yeah, think we should give it a handicap?"

Ron slapped a powerpack into his antiproton weapon. "Fuck yeah."

* * *

"Jade!" Take called out as the moon thawed. "We need those transmitters!"

"They're ready for deployment! Beaming them to _Galactica_ now!"

Takeshi was not sure if they could take the raw signal from the moons. "Commander Jarok, I need a status report on the _Laehval's_ CBP, NOW!"

" _Almost ready to go! Just another minute!_ "

"We don't exactly HAVE a minute!"

" _Pinkerton to_ Ra Cailum _: prepare to receive someone. I love ETUs._ "

A shower of light deposited Ellie Langford on the bridge, dazed and confused. "Where the hell am I?!"

"Welcome aboard the United Federation of Planets starship _Ra Cailum_ , Miss Langford," Takeshi informed.

"Wait, I'm on Pinkerton's ship?"

"Ron's, yes. There's two Pinkertons in the fleet in command of a ship: Ron and his mother, Ayame. …I hate saying her name."

" _Oh, but I_ love _it when people mention me!_ "

Takeshi yelped as the disembodied voice laughed over the comm. " _Gets him every time._ "

"Anyway, we're getting ready to deal with the problem of all those moons out there, just need our crews working on the issue to hurry up."

" _And my son to get the hell off that planet. …Or not. Corpie, link sensor systems with the_ Damascus _. You'll like this._ "

"Why does nobody say my name…" She completed the uplink, finding four signals near the moon in orbit.

"You must be fucking joking. They're fighting the MOON?!"

Takeshi sighed. "Dammit, Ron…" he muttered.

* * *

The moon had sucked them into its' gravitational field, as well as other pieces of Volantian technology.

And Isaac was being a REAL asshole about it.

Why?

Well, what would YOU call having Markers shot into your eyes?

Still, it was working, and Ron and Veronica were laughing their asses off.

"Irony's a fucking bitch! And I love her!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Carver saw something move. "Uh, siblings?"

"What is it?"

"Big bird is moving!"

Ron looked where Carver was pointing, seeing the _Laehval_ spreading her wings.

"Well, everything on Tau Volantis is about to die."

"That thing's a variant on the _Scimitar_ , isn't it?" Veronica asked. "Thalaron radiation?"

"Yep."

"Well, we'd better get out of here, then."

"What's thalaron radiation do?"

"Destroys biological material. ALL biological material. Our personal shields won't protect us when that thing fires! Ron, mind beaming us back to your ship?!"

Ron laughed maniacally. "They aren't aiming at _us_."

* * *

Danik groaned.

Surprisingly, the rock missed his heart, but he was dead anyways: blood loss and shock would get to him eventually.

His heart was still beating.

He looked up at the moon, which was no glorious thing. The vision was right.

But something else drew his attention. A bright green glow was building on the horizon, and to his blood-loss addled mind, and it looked like what he was promised.

Several seconds later, the light seemingly pulsed, washing everything around him in green.

Moments later, he was nothing but dust.

Just like everything else on Tau Volantis.

* * *

"You wiped them all out!" Veronica declared, laughing.

"Every Uni and necromorph on Tau Volantis is dead and dust. In 5 minutes, so will this moon!"

The three continued to fire markers and AP rounds into the Moon, but the only one doing any real damage was Isaac with his miniature antiproton cannon.

"Earning that title, Moon-killer!"

"THIS IS FOR THE _ISHIMURA!_ " Isaac shouted as he fired off each shot. "THIS IS FOR THE SPRAWL! THIS IS FOR FUCKING WITH MY FUCKING HEAD!" * _Gunblast_ * "THIS IS FOR NICOLE!" * _Gunblast_ * "AND THIS IS FOR JUST FUCKING PISSING ME THE RIGHT FUCK OFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!"

That last shot actually killed the moon, throwing them from the gravity field and the atmosphere, forcing them to deploy their helmets before Ron began whooping.

"Isaac Clarke, Moon-Killer!" Green began to surround them as another pulse was fired from the _Laehval_ , only seconds away from them. "BEAM US OUT!"

The wave hit most of the SCAF fleet before the four were beamed to the _Ra Cailum_ , just before the pulse hit the moon.

The Brethren Moons knew fear.

And now they would know total death.

* * *

The Moons tried to run, only to find that they couldn't: shockspace wasn't allowing them to flee.

And flee they wanted to, as the _Laehval_ was killing off two or three moons with each blast before they could spread out. They tried to run at sublight, but that wouldn't help them; damaged as she was, the warbird was still faster.

Sonja cackled. She now had command of the most dangerous thing in the multiverse that _wasn't_ the _Ra Cailum_ under Ron's command.

And she was using it to kill the Moons.

"Hey, Jade, I've got 8 moons to my kill count! This is like shooting fish in a barrel!"

" _Hey, we still get assist points!_ " Jade called out, as she continued to have inhibitor probe after probe launched to prevent the Moons from escaping into subspace. " _You wouldn't be getting any kills if we didn't finish these things in time!_ "

"I know, I'm just enjoying this!"

A groan was heard on the comm. " _I don't feel too good._ "

"You overstressed yourself after a major operation and nearly died. What'd you expect?"

"Yeah. I'll go see Rutia. Maybe she can give me something."

"Have fun talking to Ron!"

* * *

Ron groaned. "Remind me never to beam out near a thalaron pulse ever again."

"Geez, Ron, you cut it a little close on that one," Takeshi remarked.

"I don't enjoy getting it close. Takeshi, meet Isaac Clarke, John Carver and my sister, Veronica." Takeshi looked at the woman and was only reminded of Ayame.

"…please keep her away."

"You and me both, Mon Capitan."

Takeshi jumped in surprise as Q appeared on the bridge. "Fucking Q!"

Veronica and Ron pointed their weapons at him. "Whoa, no need to be hostile!"

"What the hell are you doing here."

"Oh, doing you all a favor. See, you felt guilty about the aliens." Q snapped his fingers before the gray and white planet below on the screen turned blue and brown.

A water-world.

"Cassie, scan the planet."

" _Scanning,_ " Cassie replied. " _Looks like the world just changed into… a Class-M._ "

"…why?" Ron asked.

"Mostly so you wouldn't try to skewer me alive like before," Q said, shivering slightly.

"So what were you doing when you were standing with Danik and those unis?"

"Oh, I was just being a… what's the word you people use… Troll?"

"You pulled a me. You just became tolerable."

Q smiled before Ron gave him a glare. "Pull any of the shit you pulled with Picard, Janeway and Sisko, your head will adorn the prow of this ship. And yes, that will be AFTER I find a way to put your ass down."

"You brought them back." Q looked at the newest Pinkerton sibling. "…yes?"

"Bring _him_ back."

Q was about to object, knowing exactly who she was referring to - but the murderous glare she had froze the god-like being solid, as well as Ron and Riza sharing that exact same look. "…the Continuum will have my ass…" he muttered, before snapping his fingers.

Suddenly, appearing on the bridge of the _Ra Cailum_ was none other than Jaden Takeo, only wearing a SCAF RIG. "STOP IT GET OUT OF MY FUCKING HEAD YOU GODDAMNED FUCKING MOON!" He shouted, before he paused… it was… quiet… "W-wha…?" He opened his eyes, blinking as he glanced around, looking at a stunned Veronica… before he groaned. "Oh yeah, nice try Moon. Just because you put me on the bridge of an _Oddy_ from STO with Ronnie isn't gonna make me buy your shit _any more_ than before! So FUCK. OFF!"

Ron sighed before punching him in the face.

"You know I'm going to kick your ass for that," Veronica said with a glare.

"If it keeps your boyfriend from bitching about the dead moon, then I'll suffer it."

Jaden shook his head, groaning before he felt a burn on his chest as Ron fired a low-power phaser beam at his chest.

Not even enough to count as the stun setting, so it would just sting.

And this Jaden wasn't an idiot. Necromorphs nor SCAF or Earth weapons couldn't do that.

"Welcome aboard the _Ra Cailum_ , I'm Captain Ronald Pinkerton, SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LEAVE THE INSANITY TO ME!"

Jaden blinked as he looked at what looked like his girlfriend's brother, before he began processing this information. "I'm… I'm not dead?" He asked, looking at himself, "But… the Necromorphs! And… and the-" however any additional protests he would have summoned up were silenced as Veronica practically _leaped_ atop of him, smashing her lips onto his and latching onto him like a lifeline. He was only caught off-guard for a few seconds, before he happily returned the gesture.

"Now we have TWO of them."

"Well, she's my counterpart. I'll go to sickbay, check up on the OTHER Jaden. Maybe I can introduce you to your 'brother' later. We'll send you guys on your merry way—"

Isaac and Ellie shook their heads. "We're staying."

"…that's your call. Corpsa, patch me into the _Eudora_."

"Aye, sir. Also, Admiral Yagami wants to talk to you."

"I'll deal with them both. Patch them through on the big screen."

" _Captain?_ " Austin Buckell's image appeared on the screen. " _Did… did Tau Volantis just… transform into an M-Class?_ "

"Blame Q, Mr. Buckle. I'll be beaming a small transport onto your ship, equipped with a matter/antimatter reactor and replicator technology. I'm told you need them."

Hayate gaped on the other half of the screen. " _WHAT?! You can't just—_ "

"Admiral Yagami, you have VERY little standing with me at the moment. You got most of your crew killed with your positron cannon stunt according to the files Cassie recovered."

" _How the hell do you—_ "

"Borg. Organize a repair crew. Veronica, you're the ranking SCAF officer, so what happens to those ships is your call."

"Only three ships are really space-worthy. I'll send them to your crews."

"If you'll excuse me, I have to check on my chief MS pilot."

Ron left the bridge, entering the turbolift.

"Did no one tell him?" Takeshi asked.

"RWBY tried, but he didn't care."

* * *

Ron stopped just outside sickbay, seeing Rutia. "How's my pilot?"

"Oh… doing fine," Rutia said, simply sitting at a chair… and immediately Ron knew something was wrong. He could _see_ Rutia struggling not to laugh.

"…what are you hiding?" Ron asked with narrowed eyes… before something glomped him from behind.

"Senpaaaaaaaiiiii…~!"

A happy, female voice belonging to a very feminine person.

And Ron saw black hair.

"…What. The. FUCK. JADEN?!"

"It's Jade now, Ronnie-kun~"

Ron screamed.

His life SUCKED.

* * *

 **117Jorn: Sooooooo… there's something you don't expect everyday…**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yeah. And part of me wants to see what Ron's reaction would be to Ultimate Troll Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg.**

 **Ruby: Who's that?**

 **Redemption's Avenger: IDK.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Look up the Nasuverse wiki for more info, Ruby. And check out some of the Fate/stay night and/or Tsukihime crossovers written by sakurademonalchemist.**

 **Ron the True Fan: And thus the torture begins.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	56. Chapter 56

**USS _Ra Cailum_ \- sickbay**

* * *

Ron tried so very hard to ignore the woman trying to fuse to his arm.

Mostly because Jade Takeo wasn't a woman 24 hours ago. It was creeping the shit out of him.

"So… mind explaining what the FUCK is going on? I can roll with the insanity better than anyone, but this is just WRONG."

Rutia rose an eyebrow. "Seriously? What's your problem with this?"

"One: Jaden's the wrong sex. Two: he's trying to attach himself to my arm. I'm beginning to think if it weren't for the shields, he would be!"

Jade pouted as Rutia sighed "Well… the short version is this." She said, "Jaden was bitten by a Necrofied Chryssalid, the poison in it would've turned him into one of those things… but I counteracted it by pumping estrogen into his body by… turning him into a her."

"I already knew the first part. So when do you operate again and fix this?

"…You want to turn Jade—"

"Jaden. And yes."

"I'm afraid that's not possible, boss: the poison would kill her. It's still in Jade—" She noticed his glare and chuckled nervously. "Jaden's bloodstream. The only reason it's not killing her is because the counteragent is estrogen and a fuckton of it."

"So turn him back. His balls produce the stuff."

Jade blinked. "Huh?"

Rutia groaned. "He's right. Male testicles produce estrogen in VERY small amounts. But that amount wouldn't be enough and the nanoprobe option is off the table, sir."

Ron was not happy about that.

"Meaning you're stuck with me… _Seeeennnpppaaaaiiii,_ " Jade drawled out, a massive shit-eating grin on her face.

"You do realize Cassie and Annette will-"

"They already gave their approval."

"I severely doubt that. Now let go of my arm. The last thing I need is you to molecularly fuse to it."

"Aww, but I wanna stay with you~" She sang, rubbing her face into his arm- rather, his personal shields.

"Which would you prefer, letting go of me or my breaking your bones to make you let go?" Jade knew he was getting annoyed and didn't want to test him any further than she already had, so she let him go, allowing him to get up.

"I'll be looking into this as soon as I get to the bridge and get a status report as to where the hell we are. Don't get too comfortable. Either of you." He left sickbay, the doors opening and closing within seconds.

"…he'll come around," Jade said with a giggle. "This is gonna be _fu-un_ … "

* * *

"And we're firmly back on Square One." Takeshi was forced to agree as he looked at the Earth before him.

With the familiar orbital elevators. They were back in Jade's home universe.

And if Ron had his say, he'd maroon them back where they came from, as Takeshi _knew_ how uncomfortable he was with the Jade situation.

He heard the screams ten decks up.

"Well, it'll be interesting to see what all they've managed to do in the time we've been gone," Takeshi remarked. "How long has it been now?"

"Same time: it's been two years." Takeshi looked at the stardate as well as the local year as the computers calculated it.

Stardate 89359.8 (roughly two years after they began the Odyssey) and 2312. The lift doors opened, allowing Ron onto the bridge. "Report."

"We're back in the universe we started this little trip on."

"I don't see ESD, Takeshi."

"I meant the first stop, boss—the one where we picked up our first group of friends," Takeshi replied with a teasing grin. "Speaking of, how _did_ that meeting in sickbay go, anyway?"

"If you continue that line of thought, Takeshi, your wife will find herself a widower." Ron warned, eye flashing a dangerous red.

"Oh, come on—" A sharp sound made him shut up as Ron partially drew his kilij.

He pushed the WRONG button. Ron was going to kill him if he continued teasing him.

"Ok… shutting up." He said, shrinking into his chair.

"Status?"

"Well, we're in the 00-verse once more…" Cassie said, smirking mischievously at Ron. "And yes it's the same one we visited - I've got video recordings of our _last_ visit on their internet… let's see… looks like the ESF is following Starfleet's example, trying to be more pacifist, good for them… Oh, what's this?"

"What?"

"An ESF fleet is attempting to intercept the wreckage of an old ship from Jupiter… the _Europa_ ," she said.

"Well, keep an eye on—" He winced. "Rutia, what the FUCK?!"

Takeshi blinked. "What's—"

"Nietzschean hearing enhanced with Borg technology: Jaden is screaming like a banshee down in sickbay!"

"Don't you—"

"Say it, my kilij hacks you in half. Starting with your balls."

Takeshi paled. He wasn't in the mood to lose his manhood followed by his life.

* * *

"Look, I have no idea what the hell's going on! Just get down here!"

" _My place is on the bridge, doctor: deal with him!_ " Ron yelled over the comms.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCKKKKKK!" Jade screamed out, slamming her fists against the wall. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?! FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK!"

"Jade, what's going-"

"I DON'T FUCKING KNOW GODFUCKINGDAMNIT!" She screamed, gripping her head in pain. "SOMETHING'S GETTING IN MY FUCKING HEAD!"

"Well, I'll have to build a psionic dampener—"

The doors opened, revealing a pissed off Ron. "Shut him the fuck up! NOW! I can't concentrate with him screaming like that!"

"Jade's a girl, so use the proper pronoun!"

"Jaden is a man. This is a temporary situation."

And at that, she stopped screaming, collapsing over a biobed, out of breath. His mere presence ended it.

"You must be joking. If this was an attempt to get my attention—"

"Fuck no, I'm not that desperate," she groaned, rubbing her head. "Fucking hell… it felt like something was trying to saw into my fucking brain with a rusty blade… "

"Considering what just happened, I'm disinclined to believe you."

Rutia shook her head. "Sad to say, boss, but it was real." She showed him a PADD with telepathic readouts recorded by the equipment.

"And I owe you an apology, Jaden."

"It's JADE!"

"Not for long if I have my say in it."

Jade growled before Rutia grinned. "Whatever caused this, he's the only thing that can stop it from happening again."

"You must be joking."

"Nope - Jade has to stick by you until I figure out what happened - doctor's orders."

Jade practically teleported to Ron's side grinning. "Never question Rutia's orders!" She said almost _gleefully_.

"Gives me more time to figure out how to fix this, anyways. Tricorder."

"Oh, if you think I'm going to help with your little experiment—"

"Tri. Corder."

Rutia crossed her arms as Ron glared at her. And while she had less fear of him then the rest of the crew, she still feared him. So she threw him a medical tricorder.

"Think of it this way. If I can't find a solution, no one will. I'll stop objecting, might even use female pronouns."

Jade rolled her eyes. "If Rutia can't figure it out, you sure as heck can't, Ron." She said, smiling as they walked out.

"She's got 500 years experience as a doctor. I have the collective medical experience of the Borg Collective."

"Asshole." Rutia muttered, going back to work.

"It's my shtick."

Jade purred as she snuggled closer. "My asshole~"

* * *

General Kati Manniquin had reasons to shit her pants.

Those reasons being the return of the USS _Ra Cailum._

With friends. A lot of them.

She could only hope they were here _peacefully_ otherwise they were boned. They couldn't survive the _Ra Cailum_ , they didn't have a chance in hell against an entire fucking _ARMADA_ of ships that looked very much like it!

"We're being hailed by the _Ra Cailum_ , General."

"Put her through. Might as well see what they have to say." The image of Captain Pinkerton appeared on the big screen in the control room, looking decidedly annoyed. She also saw a black-haired woman clinging to him like life depended on it.

Unbeknownst to her, it kinda did.

" _General Manniquin, glad to see you've moved up in the world._ " Ron said.

"Captain-"

" _Admiral now, actually..._ " He groaned, " _It's… a long story…_ "

"I'll just cut to the chase then, Admiral… why are you here?"

" _Well, we're still looking for home… ran into some of our friends, and our latest multi-verse jump landed us back here._ " He said.

"Well, that's interesting and all. But where did that fleet come from?"

" _We were reinforced two universes back, found some friends and refugees before that. It's where I got the promotion from. Now, I see you have a problem. We picked up the_ Europa."

"Indeed. We're dealing with the situation now. If we need assistance, we'll call for your help, _Ra Cailum_. And… who is that?"

The woman chuckled sheepishly. " _Heh… You probably already know my name, in a sense. I'm Jade Takeo."_

Kati raised an eyebrow. "So, Jaden had a kid and some temporal stuff happened, you picked up a female Jaden in your travels, or you're his wife and you just so happen to look like him genderbent and you share a similar name."

" _Nope - It's me!_ " Jade smiled, " _Had an encounter with space zombies, long story short, the cure was to swap my gender!_ "

Kati blinked.

" _It's complicated."_ Ron said, dryly. _"And she's stuck with me._ "

"…I pity you."

 _"I pity me more."_

* * *

Meanwhile, Jaden and Veronica were busy recovering.

From some fun times.

So if your mind is in the gutter… you're right. But this is a SFW fic, so no lemons for you.

Jaden held Veronica close "I… still can hardly believe it all…" he muttered, "I'm alive… brought back by freaking Q… and we're on a ship from Star Trek… I didn't think our lives could get any more complicated after 'space zombie invasion'."

"Yeah, well, I'm just happy to have you back." She kissed him on the lips before getting out of the bed, Jaden watching her as she walked off.

Goddamn was he in love with her.

"What?"

"Nothing, just… admiring the view."

"Be thankful I plan to marry you one day." She winked at him before beginning to put on her RIG.

 _"All senior staff report to the conference room. That includes_ you _, Veronica. And bring your boyfriend."_

Jaden cranked his neck as he stood up. "Ain't no rest for the wicked," he said. "I wonder what crazy things we'll be encountering now… "

"Only one way to find out," Veronica said, tossing his own RIG over.

* * *

Ron had to bring a two-person chair as Jade refused to let go of him. He was _not_ having her sit in his lap.

And from his twitching eye, he wanted to murder something.

 _Multiple_ somethings, as Takeshi was snickering.

"I will castrate you before I kill you, Takeshi. And I will skin you using a blunt rusty spoon before scooping out your brains with it."

Takeshi shut up, but he couldn't keep the mirth from his face. This was just too bloody hilarious!

The rest of the department heads filtered in, until there was only two people missing.

"Sorry we're late!" Jaden said as he walked inside, Veronica not far behind. "Had to-" He looked at Ron, blinking. "…since when did I have a sister?"

"Since Necromorphs tried to bite into me, and Rutia pumped me with Estrogen via a gender swap." Jade countered, waving. "Hi Nii-san!"

"…Yup, more crazy." Jaden sighed.

"Not for long. We have a problem, however. Something caused Jade here to scream like a banshee."

"Sure it wasn't you—" Jaden had to dodge a kilij sent flying his way. "HOLY FUCK!" He shouted as the weapon embedded itself into the wall.

"I am NOT in the mood for that shit. Now, according to files taken from the XCOM universe, we're about to have company in the form of aliens. I want everyone ready for the worst. The crazy bastard hanging from my arm—"

"Crazy bitch, thank you."

"Gender pronouns aside, I'm taking the Jaden from this universe to meet with Celestial Being and prepare for war. I want everyone here to do the same for the ESF."

Jade blinked before she sighed. "Oh great… this is gonna be hard to explain…" she muttered.

"Yes. It will. But this is a temporary situation. I'm already working on a cure."

"Don't start with that again."

"I'll start with it if I have to. Cassie, prep the _Ra-Horakhty_."

"Already done!"

* * *

 **CBS-74 _Ptolemaeus_ II**

* * *

The _Ptolemaeus_ II, or _Ptolemy_ II kai, as some liked to call it, was still trying to puzzle in how to deal with the _Ra Cailum_ now that it had returned with a massive fleet.

And how it fit in with the _Europa_ situation.

"…so, on a scale of one to ten, how fucked are we?" Lockon asked.

" _Infinity_ if we did anything to piss them off…" Sumeragi said, taking a swig from her flask. "All we can do is wait for them to call us… "

"Over 300 starships, all with the same firepower as the _Ra Cailum_ …"

An alarm began to go off, making the crew jump in surprise. "Miss Sumeragi, someone's hacking into the comm system externally!"

"Don't bother fighting it, Feldt. We all know who it is." The pinkette looked at Sumeragi in confusion.

"Who?"

"Who else has the ability to hack into our systems without a link to Veda?"

And she was proven right as the face of Ronald Pinkerton appeared on the bottom screen. " _Surprise, motherfuckers. Guess who's back_?"

"Hello Pinkerton."

" _...wait, I was expecting you-_ "

"You are literally the only one who can hack into our systems that quickly." Sumeragi said blandly. "It's not a fucking surprise, Captain Pinkerton."

" _You have NO idea how happy I am to hear that title._ "

"Wait, what?"

" _I was promoted. To Fleet Admiral. And I hate it._ "

Lockon couldn't hold it in. He laughed.

He laughed so very hard.

" _Keep laughing, Dylandy: I'll fucking rip your head off! You know that we've adapted our transporters to beam through GN fields and I know where you sleep!_ "

"Ok, you're pissed, and not just about the promotion."

" _There's a reason for—_ "

" _Hey everyone_!" A girl appeared next to Ron. " _Long time no see, idiots!_ "

…there was only one person who called them _that_ … "…JADEN!?"

"What...happened to you?!"

 _"Zombie alien poison whose cure was turning him temporarily into a girl._ Emphasis _on the temporary._ "

" _Not if I have any say in it! You won't find a cure if Rutia didn't~_!"

Ron groaned. " _Don't count your chickens before they hatch._ " Ron turned back to the screen. _"The_ Europa's _debris didn't all burn up on reentry; do you have anyone on the ground right now?_ "

Sumeragi thought about it. "Allejulah and Soma. …why?"

" _Send me their coordinates: I'll pick them up and bring them to you. The_ Europa _did some strange shit to Jaden_ —"

"Other than the gender bender." Lockon said, still grinning.

 _"Shut up, Delandy or I'll follow through on my stabbing you in the face."_

"Shutting up."

"Sending coordinates now." Sumeragi said. "Any ideas on what this is about, Pinkerton?"

 _"Well, let's say I'm a cheating bastard and I know your people are in trouble. And with all the GN particles still in the atmosphere, I have to pick them up with the fucking shuttle because I can't lock onto lifesigns without a transponder beacon."_

And they still had limits. But they were getting better at it.

It was what they did.

* * *

 **Meanwhile - on Earth**

* * *

Allelujah and Marie were having a fine time to themselves, happily traveling the Eurasian countryside. However, unfortunately, it seemed the CB curse to forever live in interesting times was upon them still - after inspecting a solar receptor base in Mongolia lead to them encountering vehicles driving and repairing themselves.

"THIS! IS! BULLSHIT!"

And indeed it was. Vehicles chasing them and transforming to continue chasing them?

Allelujah was getting tired of this shit. And the worst part? They were chasing Marie. He was not going to let them do that.

' _They're attracted to her Quantum Brainwaves!_ '

Allelujah paused. "Hallelujah?"

. _I'm taking over your body for a minute!_. The alter-ego of the Meister shouted, as Hallelujah took over, his Brainwaves spiking up, and suddenly the vehicles lost all their interest in Marie and began to chase after him as he ran up a wall.

Well, it was stupid, but Marie was worth it.

* * *

It was not as though they wanted to fly down. But Ron had to use a shuttle thanks to the GN particles screwing with the sensors.

Still, didn't mean he was comfortable with it, as Jade still hung to his arm.

 _'Just another five minutes and I'll put her in the back.'_

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: Is it wrong to be enjoying this too much?**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Nope. Not at all.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: So. Awakening of the Trailblazer. This is going to be an interesting arc.**

 **117Jorn: *Begins singing the AotT theme song***

 **Ruby: FINALLY! We've been waiting for you to come back!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Jorn needed to resupply his idea coal stores. He had it imported from Russia. Anyways, time for some fun. (Cackle)**

 **Ja Ne!**


	57. Chapter 57

**Shuttlecraft _Ra-Horakhty_**

* * *

"We're approaching the site where the married couple were last reported. Mind detaching yourself from my arm, Jaden?"

Jade pouted. "When are you going to start calling me Jade?"

"When I'm _sure_ you can't be turned back once the poison is cured. I've made some theoretical progress on it. But even then, it would have to be your choice."

"Really~?"

"Perhaps you hadn't noticed, but we go through some insane shit. What if we run into something that pumps testosterone into your body—"

"That's ludicrous, Ron."

Ron gave her a flat look, reminding her of all the shit Starfleet had gone through. Frankly, what he was saying wasn't exactly THAT strange.

"…okay, maybe we do go through weird shit on a daily basis," Jade said, shrugging. "Though not really sure if I would want to turn back… kinda gotten use to being like this… "

"And I'm not. I'm used to dealing with Jaden Takeo, not… this _new_ you. And let go of my goddamn arm already: it's making it worse than it already is."

"But I like holding your arm~" She sang, fully in senpai mode.

"For fuck's sake, woman, if you want me to get used to you being a chick, I have to get used to you normally. This new, _flirty_ version is creeping me the fuck out. And when someone insane is creeped out, THAT'S saying something."

Jade giggled. "Yis!"

"Stop it."

"Nope."

The sensors beeped. "Alright, reading two lifesigns." Ron planted his head on the console. "And unmanned vehicles are chasing them. It's never simple. Take the controls: I'm going down there."

"Wait, what?"

"These things assimilate matter. So far, they haven't tried to tackle an energy field and my PSG can keep me isolated. Just shoot anything down and keep the shields _up_."

Ron rose from the chair, _finally_ getting Jade off his arm, grabbed his compression rifle, and strode to the opening cargo door.

"Wait, what about-"

He jumped, his ultracompact floater activating to allow him to fly, assisted by his new RIG's built-in AG field and its RCS thrusters as he fired at the truck chasing Hallelujah, firing a concentrated beam of nadion particles to partly melt the damn thing as he landed.

But partly wasn't good enough, as it regenerated and came right at him.

"I really should have thought this through more." He muttered, as the truck reassembled itself before charging towards Ron - and then slamming him into a wall.

"Ron!" Jade called out, "You alright?"

"THE FUCKING TRUCK IS TRYING TO EAT ME!" And strange as it sounded, it WAS trying to eat him. It wasn't made of E-Carbon anymore: it was some kind of metallic polyalloy, and it was trying to consume him.

Assimilate him.

His mind repeated that phrase one too many times.

These things were no better than the Borg.

And he wanted to kill them. His aggression inhibitor shut down, allowing him to force the truck away by literally throwing it. It reformed and charged at him, slamming into him again, but the rage simply removed any care from his mind.

At least until a pink beam impacted the damn thing.

"DYLANDY!"

" _Your welcome!_ " Lockon shouted, as the Dynames Repair approached the area, firing off its GN Sniper at the remaining ELS-possessed vehicles.

"YOU SHOT AT ME!"

" _Because I know you'd survive,_ " The Sniper deadpanned. " _I could've shot you straight dead-on and I'm sure that wouldn't have even_ stung _you._ "

He DID have cruiser-level shields. Just not the powerplant to maintain their strength.

"I WILL SKIN YOU ALIVE!"

 _"And that's my cue to pick up the lovebirds and get the fuck out of here."_

* * *

After dodging phaser blasts from Ron's rifle and more worryingly the _Ra-Horakhty_ (Jade was not happy about her Ron being shot at. Her words, not Lockon's) the Gundams had returned to the _Ptolemaeus_.

Soon joined by a worryingly powerful guest in the form of the _Ra Cailum_ herself, dwarfing the frigate-class ship.

Frigate in role and current power level: she was a destroyer with one GN drive and a heavy cruiser with all five.

"So… aliens?" Lockon asked, looking over the footage from on the ground. "Guess it was only a matter of time… "

"These must be the _real_ dialogues to come Aeolia theorized… " Sumeragi mused, looking at them. "Excluding the massive fleet belonging to the Admiral here of course…"

Ron stood on the deck plating, looking moderately pissed off at the lack of artificial gravity. "Captain. It's not like I wanted the promotion."

"But you have it."

"Unwillingly. I'd rather be a Captain. Now, we need a plan. These things attacked humans for no reason, assimilated at least two—"

"You're treating them like the enemy, Ad—" Ron glared at Lockon, placing his hand on his sword. "Captain. Ok."

"They attempted to turn me into one of them. To assimilate me. As far as I am concerned, they're no better than the Borg."

"Whoawhoa," Jade waved her arms. "Let's not jump the gun here - are they assimilating? Yes, but unlike the Borg they aren't really announcing their intentions… this is a form of life unlike anything this universe has encountered… what if it's like that Crystalline Entity or other forms of life that… well… don't exist like _we_ do? It's possible it… them… they… whatever you call them, simply don't _know_ what they're doing is harming them."

"They could have tried any method of communication: radio, for example. Instead, they sought out certain humans and grafted themselves onto them like a virus. The only difference between them and the Borg is that at least the Borg ANNOUNCE their intention to assimilate you. These things aren't even bothering with THAT common courtesy."

The group paused. "…Did you just _defend_ the Borg?"

Ron scowled, crossing his arms. "Call it what you will."

In a way, he was.

Because when the Borg assimilated someone, they announced it. These things didn't communicate that basic thing. They just did it. Maybe it was out of ignorance, maybe it was their only way to understand.

But seen from that point of view, they were like the Borg: they gain understanding through assimilation. What they couldn't assimilate, they couldn't understand. And that was why Ron was wanting to kill them: they reminded him of the Borg far too much to be comfortable.

"While that is true, like I said, they could simply not know any better." Jade shrugged, "They don't seem to just target any humans… so far it looks like they specifically target ones with higher than average quantum brainwaves… " she scratched her head. "That might explain why it felt like someone was trying to saw into my head… "

"It doesn't matter. They destroy you. Totally. With the Borg at least you have a chance to be rescued. With them…" He focused on a picture of a schoolgirl that had half her body consumed by metallic crystals. "You have no chance at all."

"You're putting your own hate of the borg towards a species that—"

 _"_ Ra Cailum _to_ Ptolemaeus _._ " Ron's combadge chirped, interrupting Jade. He slapped it, semi-grateful for the disruption.

"Go ahead, Cassie."

" _We're picking up a ship on sensors, just entering visual range, approaching at one-eighth impulse power._ "

"And?"

" _…It's the_ Europa _, Ron._ "

They all shared a look. "Fucking metal… Cassie, prep our MS squadrons and the Morgan. I'm laying the pain." He started towards the door.

Jade protested. "Ron, wait-"

The captain turned on his heel to face Jade, anger displayed on his face. "That ship is on it's way here, most likely drawn by yours, Setsuna's, Allelujah's, and Marie's quantum brainwaves. It means to assimilate you. Kill you in the process, and anything that gets in it's way. I _will not_ stand back and watch because of your misguided sympathy while people's lives are on the line!" Ron turned, the door sliding open for him. He stopped for a moment. "Get to your Suits: we launch in five."

And he was gone.

"…He's an asshole." Setsuna muttered.

"But he IS right in a way." Jade replied."Doesn't mean we can't try to communicate."

That was the worst part about it.

He was usually right.

* * *

The plan was simple: contain the metallic bastards enough for a volley of photon torpedoes to finish them off.

He had no intention of letting Celestial Being commit species-wide suicide in a vain attempt to make first contact.

Jean-Luc Picard tried that same thing 37 years ago. It resulted in the deaths of 18 people the first time around and the deaths and assimilation of 11000 Starfleet personnel less than 18 months later.

Now he had a chance to stop history from repeating itself. There would be no second Wolf 359.

"Okay, so simple plan: we try to contain them and hold them off, then finish it with photon torpedoes. Quantums if they piss me off enough."

" _Ron, we have to try_ —"

"No. We don't."

" _I'm just saying-_ "

" ** _Just launch_** _!_ "

Jade groaned as the 0M2 launched from the _Ra Calium_ , alongside the three Gundams aboard the _Ptolemy II_. ' _Come on, aliens…_ ' she thought. ' _Make this easy for us…_ '

Sadly, the aliens did not make it easy as they rushed towards the Gundams and their support vessels, only giving Jade a blazing headache in response.

She knew Ron would love nothing more then to make contact and talk with them. But when the only method of communication resembled Borg assimilation taken to the most extreme…

Well, she understood Ron's dislike of them. That didn't mean he was right. But as they just rushed after her machine as well as the Marute and 00 Raiser, they were just proving his point.

As naive as Aiolia Sheinberg was (and Jade was the VERY first to admit it) she hoped he would be right about the outcome.

"Alright, keep your distance!" Jade ordered. Even though she wanted to contact them, her tactical sense was still strong, unlike others. "We know they assimilate through touch, that's how they get you! And that means you Setsuna! I know the Raiser is a close combat machine, but that's not gonna help."

Not that he was bothering to fire: all he was doing was dodging whenever they got close.

 _"If you're not going to help, Ibraheim, go back to the ship! You're a fucking liability if you're not willing to shoot back!"_

Sad to say, the captain was right, situation aside. Setsuna being unwilling to fire back made him dead weight, not an asset.

And when the metallic lifeforms made contact with his machine (that's when, not if, as without shooting at them, he's not making dodging them any easier) he was going to suffer for it.

But, with most of the lifeforms focused on Setsuna, this allowed the group to keep the metal contained near the _Europa_ , and Corpsa was lining up the shot, waiting on Ron's order.

Still, with the psionic interference, Setsuna was losing focus. And that loss allowed two of them to impact the 00 Raiser's right arm.

And that's when everything went STRAIGHT to hell as they began to screw with his head.

"Someone get that idiot out of here! Corpsa, photon torpedoes, full spread!"

Before the _Ra Cailum_ could fire one torpedo, a red-orange GN Tau particle beam impacted the 00 Raiser, severing the arm from the Gundam before two drones managed to get the infected arm, drag it far enough away and destroy it without getting infected themselves.

"What the-"

The metal streamed towards the Raiser, only for the Drones to fire massive beams of energy equivalent to that of a GN Bazooka, wiping out countless metal projectiles.

 _"Getting IFF from the incoming machine. CB-002 Raphael Gundam, sir."_

"It's Erde. Let him handle the small fries. Torpedo that fucking mass and make sure it's _gone_ this time."

The _Odyssey_ -Class superdreadnought opened fire, firing six torpedoes at the _Europa_ copy.

Photon torpedoes were one of the best weapons for the job, in that they utilized antimatter to deal damage, and the metal had no real defense against that.

The torpedoes detonated at point-blank range, very nearly touching the ship before they went off, and the matter-annihilating reaction consumed the entire mass in a fiery explosion.

 _"As destructive as always, Captain. I see you finally decided to use those photon torpedoes we've heard so much about."_

The Morgan soon turned back towards the _Ra Cailum_ , ignoring Tieria's hails.

He _clearly_ didn't want to deal with the Innovade.

* * *

Half an hour later, Ron was in full angry-asshole mode.

"If you idiots want to commit suicide, I will GLADLY fire a photon torpedo into your ship and we can deal with these things ourselves."

"Admiral—"

"THEY ARE TRYING TO KILL YOU, Kujo! They're not trying to communicate, they are trying to take in your biomass and turn you _into_ them!"

"Ron… you can be so damned inflexible at times." Jade sighed. "We know jack shit about these things so far, Setsuna's Innovator skills told him not to fire. Hell I felt it too! Maybe they _are_ trying to communicate, but the 00 Raiser's just not enough! Not every species communicates through radios, like all the other Cosmozoan-type species you've encountered like the Horta and Star-Jelly's!"

"Those two communicated by telepathy."

"You inflexible asshole! Stop thinking of the Borg!"

The captain glared at Jade for a brief second before reigning himself in. "One chance."

"One?!"

"I'm tempted to beam EVERY ONE OF YOU into space and give your technology to the ESF because I'm starting to see you as a LIABILITY to the safety of the Earth Sphere and humanity in general! The sole reason I'm not is because I'm a Starfleet officer and my training demands that I make ONE good attempt to make first contact! You make your attempt and you fail, we go for plan B: we blow them the fuck up. Am I understood?"

No one answered him. "Am. I. Understood?"

"Fine." Jade sighed. "Gonna need the machine shop… gonna have to build my own 00-drive machine. Setsuna I'll also build you two extra GN Drive's for your machine - you were using condensers so I'm assuming either 0 Gundam and Exia's were either destroyed or they're being used for something else. At least this way you'll have full power. Hopefully together we can actually pull this off… "

She glared at Ron, wanting to be angry.

But she couldn't find the will to be angry with him. Every time he looked at those things, he was having flashbacks to the day he lost everything to the Borg and here was a species that did the same thing in concept but only taken to a greater extreme.

He just wanted to keep them safe from the monsters that destroyed who he used to be.

* * *

While Celestial Being was going through with their idiotic plan to use the Trans-Am Raiser system (Ron's words, but no one could blame him, seeing with what happened before) Sonja was working on the Starfleet solution to communicating with them.

Contrary to his words and actions, he didn't want to destroy them if they just didn't know any better. But he wasn't going to put his people at risk like CB was seemingly willing to do.

There was a difference between exploratory curiosity and stupidity. And as far as Ron was concerned, Celestial Being had crossed that line the day it was founded.

Sonja didn't care: she had a job to do, which was strip a probe of everything but a subspace transceiver. It was part of a simple plan: fire the probe at the ELS, let them assimilate it. If they really were as smart as any sentient being, they'll learn what the transceiver does, and should be able to communicate with them just like any species could. If not… Ron can't say he didn't try at least.

And he'd lord it over Celestial Being because he was an asshole.

But the crew generally didn't like the organization (even Starfleet Academy graduates had some of that idealistic crap burned out of their heads, though it wasn't always successful) so they would probably join in on it because they were not qualified for this shit.

 _"Pinkerton to Henderson. Or is that Henderson-Takeo now?"_

"Don't start with that shit, boss: I'm pregnant. What's going on?

 _"How's the probe coming?"_

"So far so good," Sonja said, "It's pretty much nothing more than a rocket with a transceiver on it now, with all known Starfleet languages on it. "

" _Local materials_?"

"What, you want me to give them _tritanium_? It's made of E-Carbon. I'm not giving them anything they can use against us."

 _"Good girl. We still have a problem: long range sensors are picking up some INSANE shit by Jupiter_."

Sonja cracked an eyebrow. "You ARE insane."

" _I'm the_ good _insane. This is the_ bad _insane_."

"Oh. THAT insanity. Well, It's almost ready."

" _Copy that. Keep me informed."_

* * *

Ron turned to Jade. "There. _Happy?_ "

"I'll be happier once we learn more about these guys…" Jade said, "Hopefully we can solve this-" she suddenly paused as her head darted up. "The fuck?!"

"What?"

"I just felt… _something_!"

" _Uhhh, Captain? Patching in video from Jupiter..._ " Corpsa said, as the two looked at the closests screen… as what looked like a wormhole began opening right where the storm of Jupiter _would_ have been.

Two of the moons orbiting Jupiter were outright GONE.

And out of Jupiter's nigh-eternal storm, the hurricane known as the Great Red Spot that had been going on even in the 25th century (and the 31st) came a swarm of Extraterrestrial Living-metal Shapeshifters, as the ESF coined them.

Ron was still tempted to just call them this universe's Borg. Again, Jade couldn't blame them with the increasing number of similarities.

She wanted him to be wrong and she suspected he even wanted to be wrong.

Because all of them were tired of him being always right. Even Ron himself wanted to be wrong.

"Well… that's a whole lot of ELS… " Jade muttered. "Welp… guess we've got our work cut out for us..."

"We ran out of time. Neither I'm right or I'm not. Bridge, set a course for Jupiter: we're going to intercept them."

"Aye sir."

Jade blinked. "You're going to fight them?! That's not the answer!"

"I'm going to give you and the peaceful first contact scenario your chance. It gets blown, we're going to war."

She could only sigh "Fine, fine… I'll send word to the others to double-time it." She said. "Hope this works… "

"I hope I'm wrong."

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: He might be. Might not.**

 **117Jorn: Only way to find out is for you to keep reading…**

 **Ruby: ALIENS!**

 **Blake: At least they aren't the… What's that noise?**

 **Ron the True Fan: Aw, fuck.**

 **117Jorn: I thought we fucking killed all of these damned things! *Necromorph pops out of an air vent, gets grabbed and smashed by Jorn***

 **Ja Ne!**


	58. Chapter 58

**CBS-74 _Ptolemaeus_ II**

* * *

"Knowing that asshole, he'll just destroy them without giving them one chance to communicate. He's already made up his mind that they're nothing more then this universe's version of the Borg."

" _Well thankfully, he IS giving his own shot to communicate with them._ " Jade informed the _Ptolemy_ crew. " _He's just going to launch a probe with comm equipment inside… he thinks if the ELS want to talk, they'll assimilate its tech, and communicate._ " She shook her head " _But… I'd be lying if I thought it would be that easy… as much as I hate him, if Aeolia thought GN particles and Innovators were the way to communicate with them, it may come down to Setsuna and Me to pull this off…_ "

"You have a 00 suit?"

" _Yeah, just finished it - built a 00 Gundam and an XN Raiser unit for a XN 00 Gundam,_ " Jade said, " _If we're lucky, my machine plus Setsuna's 00 Raiser Gundam_ should _be able to pull it off… unless you have anything else._ "

"Well, we do have the 00 Qan[T], but it's unfinished," Sumeragi said. "Krung Thep is working on the final adjustments."

" _Damn… well we don't have enough time for me to head over and finish it on Ron's timetable - he's already preparing ships from the fleet to head out to Jupiter._ "

"He's in a rush, isn't he?"

" _I don't want to defend him, but if he's right, the sooner we stop them, the better. I just pray he's wrong._ "

Sumeragi huffed. "We all do."

* * *

The _Ra Cailum_ and _Firestorm_ were preparing for warp travel, as they were going to drag along a small ESF task force with them.

That also included a Mobile Armor with their first Innovator. The former Ron was ordering Sonja to scan the living piss out of so they could copy it for Starfleet Tactical.

The Klingons and Romulans were doing the same thing.

"Big SOB," Isaac Clark muttered, looking at the specs of the Gadelaza MA, which was almost as long as a smaller Federation vessel.

He was impressed, as according to the blueprints, the Mobile Armor had the firepower equal to an _Excelsior_ -Class ship from the 2320s.

Granted, it took them 20 GN tau drives to do the job of a single warp core and the GN field still wouldn't protect it from a photon torpedo, but it was impressive.

But against the _Ambassador_ -Class, the not-so-suited-for-combat _Galaxy_ or God forbid the _Sovereign_? No chance in hell.

And no chance against the _Odyssey_ , especially the enhanced _Ra Cailum_ , which was in a subclass of her own as the only one of her kind.

"Yeah, it is," remarked Isara Gunther from next to him, having been looking up the specs when Isaac had gone by. "It's amazing what technology different universes will come up with, especially that they made something so big capable of being piloted by only one person."

"Well, when you compare that thing to, well…" Isaac gestured to the deck, meaning the _Ra Cailum_.

"Oh, yes, compared to this ship, it's tiny," Isara replied. "And it just about breaks even with the _Firestorm_. But this ship requires thousands of crew, and even the _Firestorm_ needs about 45 people to run. That Gadelaza is able to be operated by only a single person, which is an astonishing feat."

"Not that. The _Ishimura_ was designed for one thing: cracking planets apart. Even then, the power source sucked compared to this ship. That thing barely compares to the _Ishimura_."

That meant the _Ra Cailum_ continued to be the most powerful thing in the multiverse. Only a few things could outmatch it.

And all of them were ancient, older than most species.

"Ah, yes, you do have a point," Isara replied. "Then again, most of what we come across doesn't really compare to the _Ra Cailum_ power-wise, so I tend to just take that for granted and focus on other points."

" _All hands, this is the captain. Stand to battlestations. We're moving out._ "

Isaac huffed. "Looks like it's time to get to work." He turned away from the window, deploying his RIG's helmet as he usually did to return to work.

* * *

The entire fleet dropped out of warp in the vicinity of Jupiter, as the ELS were still swarming around it.

"Well, that's nightmare inducing."

"You already think they're this universe's Borg."

"Has past experience shown that they aren't?"

The jackass had a point: so far, they did nothing but act like the Borg by attacking and assimilating anything they touched.

They were all hoping he was wrong, though.

"Gadelaza is moving out. Vocal comms indicate that the pilot is unwilling to wait for orders." Ron wasn't amused. First Contact wasn't something you rushed. You were slow, methodical.

Rushing only got people killed.

"Shall we use the tractor beam to keep him from doing something stupid?"

Ron shook his head. "Let him go. Let him kill himself."

Corpsa looked at Ron. "Sir?"

"It took us 50 years to figure out first contact protocol and a lot of lives. He wants to be an idiot, let him. Probe on standby."

"Probe on standby," Corpsa replied.

* * *

"He's just letting him go?" Feldt nodded. Sumeragi groaned, knowing why.

The smug bastard was going to let the pilot die to prove a point. Starfleet had more experience with this sort of thing. And they weren't giving any help.

It was annoying, but there wasn't much they could do.

As Ron probably predicted, the ELS began to swarm towards the craft, with the Gadelaza firing back at the swarm.

The result was… predictable.

After an extended firefight, the ELS latched onto the Gadelaza, and began to consume it. They could hear the pilot's screams over the radio.

"Damn it, Pinkerton! HELP HIM!"

 _"Sorry, not happening. You idiots wanted to make first contact your way, I'm letting you make your mistakes before I step in."_

"YOU BASTARD!"

Ron didn't reply.

"Copy that. Corpsa, fire the probe into the mass that was formerly the Gadelaza."

You will notice that Ron did not call her Corpie. As if we needed to stress the point, it just shows how mad Ron is.

The probe impacted the ELS form, quickly being assimilated.

"Attention unknown metallic lifeforms, this is Admiral Ronald Pinkerton of the Federation starship _Ra Cailum_. Your process of assimilating lifeforms to understand them is destructive and you must stop. Respond on this frequency. Your failure to do so will be taken as a hostile act and we WILL respond accordingly."

Nothing. Nothing came back but static.

Minutes passed before the ELS began to swarm towards them. "I gave them their chance and they didn't respond." Ron snarled. "That's it. Red alert, all hands stand to battlestations!"

" _That doesn't mean anything, Pinkerton!_ "

"They're attacking us now: as far as I'm concerned, they're just a threat. You either shoot at them and defend yourselves or you side with them and become a target for us."

Sumeragi growled, but his simplistic view had some points in its' favor.

The ELS didn't distinguish between friend and foe, only ELS and non-ELS.

" _All Mobile suits, launch. Keep the ELS away from the ships and try to thin their numbers."_

* * *

"Uncooperative bastard, won't let us even try the Trans-Am Burst." Jade muttered. Seeing as the ESF's attempt ended up in death and Ron's attempt was fruitless, he probably figured that the Trans-Am Burst wouldn't mean one damn.

But they at least had to try. You didn't go around exterminating species when they simply don't talk.

"Jade Takeo, 00 XN Raiser, launching!"

The shitstorm she launched into was simply described as a madhouse as the _Ra Cailum_ was firing her phasers at everything that swarmed, the _Firestorm_ shooting at them like a loyal guardian.

The two _Miranda_ -Class escorts swooped in, firing torpedoes at the large ELS, destroying them.

" _Ra Cailum_ , Setsuna and I are moving off."

 _"Jaden, if the ESF's attempt didn't work, yours won't! Get back on the firing line!"_

"It's Jade, asshole! Activating Trans-Am BURST!"

Jade and Setsuna activated their GN drives, flooding the area with concentrated particles, connecting minds as their machines glowed red.

The ELS seemed to pause in their attack for a moment.

" _What are you?_ " Setsuna asked in their brief pause. " _Why have you come here?_ "

" _Hey! ELS!_ " Jade shouted, " _Or whatever you call yourselves! Stop attacking so my future Boyfriend doesn't kill you!_ "

" _I'M NOT YOUR BOYFRIEND!_ "

" _Not_ yet."

" _DAMMIT CASSIE!_ "

" _ANSWER ME!_ " Setsuna shouted.

Jade and Setsuna suddenly found themselves in 'Innovator-space' as Jade had coined the strange void quantum brainwave users could access. " _Please tell us what your goal is!_ " Setsuna called out.

" _Hellooooo? Testing, you hearing us?_ " Jade asked.

However, both Setsuna and Jade blinked as they saw… something, a surge of energy, of… something on the other side… however suddenly there was a pulse of energy - like a feedback effect as the psionic consciousness tore into their minds. Setsuna suffered as badly as the ELS impacted both machines, beginning to assimilate them.

"FUCK! I FUCKING TOLD THEM!" Ron raged. "Riza, close to distance! Corpsa, shoot that ELS off!"

"I can't, there are too many in our way! They're taking the blasts!"

Ron got up from his chair. "Fuck!"

* * *

Jade screamed as her mind was fucked with by the ELS. She knew that this would be risky, but this was dangerous. The Gundam shuddered as it was torn apart and converted.

 _"You are a fucking idiot."_

"...Ron?" The Gundam's cockpit was torn from the machine as the Morgan tore it from the 00 XN Raiser.

 _"I told you it wouldn't work. But you didn't listen."_

"I had to… try." She muttered, holding her head. The screaming had subsided, most likely due to Ron's proximity.

 _"And look what it got you."_

A barrage of micro-torps off the _Firestorm_ blew away the remains of the Raiser copy.

The new ELS were destroyed by the USS _Tempest_ , the same ship that rescued Ron 3 years prior, but the ship was being swarmed, the shields failing around the port nacelle as dozens of ELS impacted and began to assimilate it.

However a second ship was quick to fire a phaser blast, knocking off the nacelle before they could assimilate the whole ship. It made it slower, but it would survive as the _Tempest_ limped out of the fray.

"I saw… something… " Jade muttered, "We did… there was something… there Ron… "

" _You had nothing. You were going to die_." The Morgan fled towards the _Ra Cailum_ , which caught the _Ptolemaeus_ in a tractor beam, firing her impulse engines at full power, fleeing from the battle space.

 _"Boss, we got a LOT of those things after us!"_

"Keep firing at the damn things!"

" _WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE'RE DOING!_ " Corpsa shouted, while the fleet continued to fire volley after volley at the ELS. " _They're like fucking Hydras! Each one we kill, ten more take their fucking place!_ "

"To hell with this. Warp speed: head back to Earth!"

" _We have to recover your machine and the other gundams, boss!_ " ELS swarms began to close in on the Morgan, Ron rotating the machine to open fire over Jade's objections.

Thankfully, he was about to be reinforced.

Suddenly several beams of GN Energy flew down, and ripped apart the ELS, stalling their advance. "The hell?" Ron muttered, looking for the source, as a squadron of Flag-esq Mobile Suits flew into the battlefield.

He was thankful for the aid, as the Mobile Suits, which his IFF IDed as Braves, drew the ELS off.

" _Firestorm_ , what's your status?"

 _"Not good, Ron!"_ Luna shouted. Now that he noticed, the _Firestorm_ was moving somewhat sluggishly.

"Luna, where the hell's Take?"

" _No time to explain! Get the fleet out of here!"_ He couldn't argue with that, landing the Morgan in the main shuttlebay.

"All forces, this is Pinkerton! Fall back, I repeat: Fall back from the combat zone!" He called out. "Regroup at Earth! We're gonna need a better strategy!"

The orders were sent, and the ESF-Starfleet joint fleet began to fall back from the battlespace, engaging in a fighting retreat from the ELS pursuers - however once they jumped to warp, the ELS stopped.

* * *

Sumeragi retreated to her quarters before downing most of what was left in her flask.

They failed. The Federal attempt failed, Celestial Being failed, even Starfleet, with three centuries of experience, failed.

" _Miss Sumeragi, we're being hailed by the_ Ra Cailum."

She snorted. Of course the bastard decided to gloat. "Put it through, Milenia."

Might as well get it over with.

Ron, sitting at his ready room desk, appeared on the monitor. "So, called to gloat, Admiral? To say we were wrong and you were right?"

" _Kujo, would it surprise you that I hoped I was wrong?_ "

"I would only hope so," Sumeragi sighed, "Setsuna's in a coma now, we lost Tieria's Raphael Gundam - but he survived by transferring back to VEDA… did you learn anything from the ELS that we couldn't, Pinkerton?"

" _Only that my fears about them being able to convert any material into their own mass have been confirmed: not even the_ Ra Cailum's _hull can resist the effect. We have found out a few things that will help against them, though. If we polarize our hull to a certain frequency, they'll just impact and do no damage. But if they're anything like the Borg, they'll adapt_."

"We don't have your hull polarization technology, Pinkerton: our hulls can't maintain an electrical charge. It's why E-Carbon became so useful."

" _Your problem, not mine. I expect you to put your qualms aside: we're going to be engaging them at Earth. I don't want to be shooting at Celestial Being as well as the ELS, Captain_."

"We're not idiots, Pinkerton - we will stop the ELS from setting foot on Earth." Sumeragi stated, "One way or another."

Ron pressed a key on his monitor, ending the call.

Stubborn bastard thought that fighting back was the only option. Granted, in his defense, as far as he knew, they **had** exhausted all options.

As far as he knew. Celestial Being had one final card to play.

The GNT-0000 00 Qan[T], phonetically pronounced 'Quanta'. It was a perfectly synchronized twin-drive Gundam-class Mobile Suit.

There was just one problem.

The pilot it was designed for (as in literally built around) was in a coma. All they could do now was hope he would wake up before the ELS arrived.

* * *

Ron knew something was wrong the moment he beamed aboard the _Firestorm_ and he was directed immediately to sick bay.

On the central biobed was Takeshi, lying on his stomach, getting operated on. "What the hell happened?"

Luna shook her head as she approached. "IDF failed. He was thrown across the bridge into a support railing."

Ron winced, knowing exactly what happened. "It broke his back."

"It did. They're trying to repair the damage, but there's some nanotech bullshit attached to parts of his nervous system."

Ron blinked "Nanotech?" He asked, "Since when did he have _nanotech_ in his system?"

"Don't know..." Luna said, before her eyes narrowed. "But I think I know who to ask for answers…"

Ron huffed. "Pinkerton to _Ra Cailum_ : get Flay Allster over here. She has some work to do."

" _Understood, sir_."

* * *

 **117Jorn: Well… that's not good at all…**

 **Ron the True Fan: His back is broken.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Yeah, that's crippling.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yep, but what is that nanotech that Luna mentioned? Well, you'll find out soon enough.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	59. Chapter 59

**USS _Firestorm_ \- sickbay**

* * *

"There was a power surge in the EPS grid. The dampers failed, but as he wasn't buckled in, he was thrown across the room into a support railing. It broke five of his vertebrae and six of his ribs. The ribs we patched up on the way to sickbay. The spine is a different problem."

Ron scoffed. "An understatement. Back in the 60s, Ambassador Worf broke his spine and had to have the whole thing completely replaced. Problem is, Worf is Klingon. Takeshi doesn't have the redundant systems a Klingon or I have."

Flay looked at Ron. "Really."

"You can sever my spine from my head and keep the brain on life support: the Borg implants pick up the slack. Rutia tried it once. Wasn't fun."

Flay blinked, then nodded. "Alright… Still, it would have done a lot worse, except for the reason you called me here."

"You knew?"

"I figured it was only a matter of time," she admitted. "Captain Yamato is the result of another Section 31 experiment, though we didn't tinker with his genes at all. Have you ever wondered why he's so good at the helm of a starship without being another Riza Pinkerton, destroyer of shuttles?"

"Because no one is better?"

"Beyond that, yes. Your sister has enhanced reflexes that are so fast there is no computer within the next three centuries that can keep up with her movements and maintain hull integrity. Nothing for a destroyer-class starship. It's why we reassigned her to the _Ra Cailum._ But Takeshi was an attempt to get as close as possible without breaking a ship in the process."

"How?"

"The nanites in his system. They were produced by Section 31 in secret using a few blueprints of captured Borg nanoprobes. There is no direct Borg technology in his system, but it was derived from that. They allow him to more directly interface with the ship's computer subconsciously, and at the same time increase his speed and reaction times way above the human normal, with awareness and reaction times to match. There are limiters in place that keep him from reaching Riza levels, of course. However, there is one drawback."

"That being?"

"The nanites seem to react somewhat negatively to the human body, in a manner that causes them to break down. At the same time, they've integrated deeply enough into his system that he practically needs them to survive. His monthly 'booster shots' were in fact fresh batches of nanoprobes."

"So let me give him an injection of—"

"Won't work, sir. It's encoded to kill him if anything remotely looking like Borg technology enters his body. The nanites have to be non-Borg in origin."

Rutia groaned. "Why don't they have Borg auto-regeneration systems?"

Ron provided the answer by extending his injection tubules thoughtfully. "Do you have any idea how many people would be involved in shit like that? Doctors, nanotechnological engineers, Starfleet admirals, intelligence officers, security and sciences personnel? At least 500 people were involved in making these things. And if they used Borg technology, it would have involved more people, more security, more safeguards. It wouldn't've been practical."

"Not to mention it wouldn't have been secret anymore," Flay agreed. "I was assigned to be Captain Yamato's personal physician because of the nanites—biomechanical interfaces happen to be my specialty. I'll do everything I can to get him back up and running, but unless we can find a universe that uses a more stable version of what Takeshi has in his system, or somehow get help from the future, it'll take a very long while, sir."

"Meanwhile, I have to go operate on his back." Rutia began to change into surgical scrubs as Ron facepalmed, his tubules retracting into his knuckles before the comm chirped.

"Ra Cailum _to Pinkerton._ "

"Can we NOT have bad news, Cassie?"

" _Unfortunately, it is,_ " Jade spoke up. " _I… sensed something again, so I had Cassie scan the ELS at Jupiter… lots of subspace activity so… bad news: a massive ELS just came through._ "

"How big?"

" _3,000 Kilometers… and worse news… we've… detected signs of them using… well… warp drives…_ "

"The _Tempest's_ warp nacelle." Ron realised, swearing. "What's their speed?!"

 _"Warp .5, barely. That gives us roughly an hour until they're in the Earth Sphere."_

No choice then. "Get the fleet ready for combat. Tell Shon to get the ESFF ready."

* * *

 **USS _Enterprise_ \- Earth orbit**

* * *

War.

The _Enterprise_ had seen too much of it in the past three years.

Her first action was to save DS9 from the Dominion. Then the Iconian War.

And now… she stands yet again to defend Earth. Was it from another universe? Yes, but to them - Earth was still earth, and they will defend her for as long as they could pump power into their ships.

Kati Manniquin had faced off against the _Ra Cailum_ before and lost. Badly. She mused as she stood on the bridge of the _Enterprise_ , a more famous starship, though younger in this case, being built after the _Ra Cailum_.

"Captain Shon, thank you for lending me your ship's communications systems."

"We need to mobilize all of your forces as well as ours. Seemed the only thing to do, given the circumstances, General."

"Captain, if I may ask, what does Pinkerton have against the ELS?"

Shon sighed. "It reminds him too much of the Borg."

"The Borg do resemble these things a little too closely. Assimilation, no mercy… I can understand. But what if he's wrong?"

"Ron is rarely ever wrong. He tries not to let it go to his head. He doesn't always succeed. But he tries."

"And Takeo is determined to prove him wrong."

"Yeah…"

Shon let out a breath. "So far? They're proving him right."

* * *

Jade looked at the blueprints of the 00 Qan[T] on the monitor.

It was easily the most advanced MS CB had ever built without her help, so she had to give them credit where it was due: its GN Drives were even more in sync than the 00 Raiser's. If anything had a chance of communicating with the ELS, it was that thing… with Setsuna piloting it.

Fuck what Ron was saying, the only way to win this day was to actually _communicate_ with the ELS. They literally reproduced faster than they could destroy them.

The only way Ron's way was going to win was if he destroyed a solar system.

"…Oh, fuck, don't tell me he's going to do that." She thought about it. It was insane.

…But Ron was the most insane thing she knew. He might if everything went straight to hell. She had to get in his head: find out what his backup plan was.

And she was going to get her answer. And more.

Jade yawned, before she heard a transporter beam causing her to blink. Suddenly, she found herself in a closet. "Huh?" She asked, glancing around. "The fuck?"

"I could ask the same damn thing!" She looked to her right, seeing Ron, who was livid. "What the hell is going on?!"

 _"Nice to see you've noticed what happened."_

"Cassie! What the hell are you doing and why can't I open this door?!"

" _It's called matchmaking._ " Cassie said, with a giggle. " _Me, Sonja, Annette and Nena thought it up…_ "

Jade blushed "…Oh my…" she muttered.

"DAMN IT, CASSIE! WE DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS!"

Jade wasn't going to waste this.

She was in the same room with _Ron_.

Cassie and Annette were giving her permission to do whatever she wanted.

Whatever. She. Wanted.

She wasn't wasting this chance to become Ron's next girlfriend.

"Ronny…" Jade grinned, "The only way they're gonna let us out… is if we _do it_..."

"Woman, for fuck's sake-" Ron was interrupted as Jade leaped up and kissed him.

She was getting what she wanted. Now.

* * *

Takeshi groaned.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, captain."

"Ugh… what hit me…?"

"It's what YOU hit, not the other way around."

Takeshi thought about it. "…who thought safety railings were a good idea?"

Rutia huffed. "The same people that buckle up. When you get your full mobility back, I suggest using the goddamn restraints."

Takeshi sighed. "Probably… probably a good idea," he admitted, trying to get to a sitting position, only for his back to seemingly scream in protest. "OW!"

"Oh, you broke your spine in five places."

"And you didn't tell me that before I tried seeing up?!"

Rutia grinned. "I was wondering if you would be stupid enough to try to sit up. It amused me."

"You're a sick twisted bitch, Rutia!" Take growled, holding his spine.

"Jorge finds it funny when I make some stupid idiot hurt himself." The grin faded. "Stay on the bed."

"No way," Takeshi replied, grunting as he continued to try and get up. "I… I have to… get back out there…"

"You're not going to get far."

 _THUMP_

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Told you you wouldn't get far."

Takeshi tried vainly to glare at Rutia. "You're enjoying this!"

"Enjoying you reap the rewards of you not following safety regulations for a thrill? Hell yes." She grabbed Takeshi before putting him back on the bed as painfully as possible.

"I thought you took an oath not to hurt people!"

"I'm not doing any further damage. Besides, the oath is 'first, do no harm'. I can cause as much pain as I like." She poked his spine, causing him to scream.

"Alright, Doctor, I think that's enough," came a voice, as Flay Allster stepped into view. "I can't have him screaming in pain while I tell him what the full situation is."

Takeshi blinked through the pain. "Full…gah… full situation?" he asked.

"Yes," Flay replied. "Like Ron, you're not a baseline human, but for you it's not because of altered DNA." She then explained to him all that she had explained to Ron earlier (Same bloody information, so we won't cover it a second time).

"You assholes screwed with my nervous system. Put Borg technology in my body."

"It's not Borg."

"MIGHT AS WELL BE! If Ron didn't think Section 31 wasn't worth tearing apart, I'd ask him to rip your head off!"

Rutia slinked off, preparing for the moment Ron would come down to do as his XO asked.

The day was coming.

It would likely take a while, and they'd have to make it home, first, but it was coming.

For now, though, they had a more imminent threat to handle.

* * *

Jade moaned VERY contently.

Took five minutes, but Ron learned… well.

Resistance was futile.

"They're going to kill me."

"They clearly gave their approval, Ronny." Jade giggled, hugging her new boyfriend. "Though… death by copious amounts of sex would be a hell of a way to go, now wouldn't it?"

Ron began to slam his head into the deck plating. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. This means we're going to have to deal with Sonja and Nena somehow."

"Eh, I think they'll be… in, if you get my meaning."

"I severely doubt it."

"Oh, we had this talk in Dead Space, they said it's oka-"

Red alert klaxons started going off. " _Red alert, all hands to battlestations!"_ Cassie shouted over the intercomm.

"FUCK!"

Ron finally got the closet door open, tugging his pants back on before noticing that Jade hadn't moved one bit.

"We kinda have a job to do."

"Oh, I'm not so sure…"

"Damn it, enough with the seductive crap, Jade: we have work to do."

"…That's the first time you've called me Jade."

"Get dressed and try not to get killed out there."

Jade smiled "Right back at ya, Ron-kun." She said, grabbing her gear. "Cassie? Quick beam up to 0 Mk-II please." And a moment later she vanished into transporter lights.

Ron zipped up his uniform before rushing out, heading for the bridge.

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: And so the battle begins.**

 **117Jorn: And Jade and Ron finally tied the knot. About f**king time.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: But unfortunately, Takeshi is going to have to sit this fight out. Not to mention now we know just why he's as good at the helm as he is.**

 **Don't worry, though, he'll be getting back into action soon enough.**

 **Ruby: ATTACK!**

 **Ron the True Fan: You heard the lady.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	60. Chapter 60

**CBS _Celestial Being_**

* * *

"All ships, this is General Manniquin! We will begin this operation with an all-out missile barrage to destroy as many enemy targets as possible! This will be followed up be Mobile Suits engaging the enemy at close range!"

" _This is Captain Shon: we're arming all weapons now. They might have GN fields to protect them from your missile barrage, so we're arming our photon torpedoes._ "

" _Here they come!_ " Suddenly emerging from warp was the entire ELS Armada, with millions of ELS forms, all surrounding the colossal 3,000 Kilometer sphere in the middle of it all.

" _Alright then, FIRE THE LASER!_ "

With a burst of energy that burned out the GN Tau drive powering it, the massive GN Cannon of the _Celestial Being_ opened fire against the ELS.

The beam of death that nearly killed the _Ra Cailum_ tore a hole in the ELS line before a certain Romulan yelled 'FIRE EVERYTHING!'.

And thus _everything_ was fired.

Disruptor bolts, phaser pulses and beams, not to mention a literal fuckton of photon torpedoes, were fired-the fleet having PLENTY of resources to make more of the damn things.

The shots hit and impacted much of the ELS forces, coating space with an entire wave of explosions and smoke which could be seen all the way down on Earth. A volley like that would've been the end of many fleets.

But the ELS were… persistent. Emerging from the smoke, were _even more_ vessels, and the massive moon-shaped craft remained undamaged.

* * *

Ron sat in his chair, glaring at the ELS armada.

"Remind you of anything?"

"The fucking Iconian fleet at Earth. _That_ was a shooting gallery from hell."

"Well, keep firing until you hit something!"

Corpsa fixed Ron with a stare. "We hit EVERYTHING we shoot at."

"WELL THEN KEEP FIRING!"

"Celestial Being _to all forces: launch Mobile Suits and engage the enemy_!" Kati called out.

" _Copy that!"_

 _Morningstar_ began launching Anubis Division, sending dozens of the Starfleet MS into the fray. Sniper Hoplites cored massive ELS forms, Hoplite Cannon types wiped swathes of the metal from existence, and the normal stock Hoplites covered them.

Even so, more kept on coming. And they weren't using just their bodies.

" _Wait, what are they-"_ A confused pilot asked over the comms.

 _"Holy fuck, is that a mobile suit!?"_

Purple beams of almost corrupted GN energy started firing back at the defensive fleet, originating from the ELS' versions of ESF mobile suits.

" _FUCK!_ " Jade shouted. " _All units, be advised, the ELS have mobile suits! Repeat, the ELS have mobile suits!"_

"So we've noticed!"

A massive 1200 meter long ELS rushed past the rest, heading straight for the _Ra Cailum_ , intent on ramming it.

"FOCUS FIRE ON THAT ELS! If it assimilates the _Ra Cailum_ , we're all doomed!" And they were right to fear.

So far, they copied ESF GN technology, warships and warp drive.

What if they assimilated the most advanced and powerful starship in the known multiverse?

It slammed into the shields, making the _Ra Cailum_ rock hard as it slapped at the energy barrier, weakening them with each slap.

"Riza, plot a jump to get us the fuck away from that thing!"

"Hold on!"

The super dreadnought jumped, using the Colonial's jump drive to tear the form off.

As they came out of the jump on the other side of the planet, parts of the ELS crumpled and shattered, subjected to intense subspace distortions it had no chance of preparing for. It reeled, moving away from the _Ra Calium_ sluggishly. Riza immediately put some distance between them.

"Corpie, disable the blast shapers and set the torpedoes to maximum yield." Ron snarled, furious. "Blow it out from existence."

Three torpedoes flew from the tubes and impacted with the ELS, with the resulting explosion lighting up the night sky on Earth. There was nothing left of the form.

"Cassie, diver auxiliary power to shields. Riza, get us back in there."

"We're not going to take much more of that, sir."

"Adapt the shields to absorb GN particle plasma: the ELS can pump power into the shield grid."

That little trick was something they picked up from the Borg: if the shields were adapted to a certain energy weapon, they would just suck up the energy and recharge the shields. It was how the Borg seemed to tank EVERYTHING.

But, like the Borg, it carried a risk. If the idiots shooting at them changed their weapon modulation, it would cause more feedback through the shields.

Which would cause more consoles to explode, sparks to fly, you know, all that shit that happens in a sci-fi space battle.

But they had to take the chance.

The _Ra Calium_ jumped back into the fray, immediately opening up with everything she had.

It was going to be a long battle.

* * *

Starfleet may have taken the lead, but the Klingon Empire refused to let them have the glory as they began to hit the ELS with everything they had, using their birds of prey to make hit and run strikes on the larger ones.

The larger battlecruisers also opened up, their fire decimating the oncoming ELS forces, even though they kept coming.

On the _Examia_ , Hayate tracked the efforts of the battle. While they were continuing to hammer the enemy, none of the fire was making it through to the large one. They needed to take that down to thin the hordes.

"Open a channel to the _Ra Cailum_ ," she ordered. "We need authorization to deploy the Positron Cannon—I can't see us taking out that gigantic one any other way."

"Channel open."

Ron appeared on a sub-monitor, directing the ship he commanded. " _What the hell do you want, Yagami?_ "

"We need to take out that big one in the back of their forces if we're going to have any chance at this, Pinkerton," she said. "Requesting permission to deploy the _Examia's_ Positron Cannon—nothing else is getting through, and I can't see any other options."

" _Just shoot the damn thing: don't bother asking my permission._ "

"Admiral—"

" _If you need to fire the fucking thing, FIRE THE FUCKING THING! Who the hell do you think you are, Lamperouge's stooges? They have to wait for orders and have no initiative!_ "

She was going to argue that the weapon was powerful enough it needed authorization from the Fleet Commander in order to be used, but decided it was a moot point. Normally, she was the Fleet Commander when the _Examia_ was deployed, meaning she'd have the freedom to order it herself, but that wasn't the case here. He was essentially giving his authorization, anyway. "Understood," she said.

The Fleet Admiral glared at her over the comm. Apparently, he wasn't in the mood for slow deployment.

" _Fire the fucking cannon and stop talking about it!_ "

"You heard him; fire!"

The cannon's barrel extended out from the ship's bow, already charging, and mere seconds later, the massive antimatter blast shot forth, vaporizing countless ELS on its way to the massive one, before there was a bright flash as it made contact.

It did nothing, as shown by a massive 'deflection', which redirected the positron stream into ribbons behind it.

"Oh, that's just not fucking fair."

" _Deal with it, Yagami. We'll have to get something to the core, blow it to hell and mop up from there._ "

"Admiral, we have NOTHING that can get that close!"

" _We have raptors: fit them with photon torpedoes and get them to jump in and blow it to hell! Use your imagination!_ "

 **(BGM: Gundam 00 Awakening of the Trailblazer "Final Mission - Quantum Burst")**

At that point, a Mobile Suit launched from the _Ptolemy_. Blue and white, with a massive assembly on its left shoulder and a sword in its right hand.

The Gundam 00 Qan[T].

" _This is Setsuna F. Seiei. I am heading towards the large ELS body._ "

" _Seiei, this is_ Ra Cailum _Actual: what the hell are you doing out of bed and what are you trying to pull?!_ "

" _I am initiating the dialogues, Admiral._ "

" _Fuck's sake, you idiot, we TRIED that! And look what happened!_ "

" _We are properly prepared this time,_ " came another voice from within the 00 Qan[T]. Tieria Erde. " _We are using the entirety of the legacy of Aeolia Schenberg: Innovation, the Twin Drives, and Veda. We will not fail._ "

" _You failed before you started!_ "

" _SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU!"_ Jade intruded, fed up with the bickering. _"Ron, we need to cover the Quanta. You can always cause a supernova and destroy the entire solar system if this doesn't work!_ "

Jade had a point. Ron COULD do that.

" _Fine. Riza, take us in. And when you fail, I'll be gloating about it in hell._ "

The Quanta just continued on its way, everyone shifting their focus to clearing Setsuna a path. Jade moved alongside the Gundam with her modified 0 Gundam Mk-II as they made their approach towards the super-ELS.

" _We're gonna need to form a hole in that thing to get inside, Setsuna._ " Jade said. " _Give us cover people!_ "

" _You got it!_ " Lockon shouted, as Zabaniya moved alongside them, its GN Gun bits began indiscriminately firing in every conceivable direction - with all the ELS around, every shot was guaranteed to hit _something_.

" _LET'S GO!_ " Hallalujah shouted, as Harute began speeding through, firing at ELS Cruisers and mobile suits alike, the mobile suits cutting a path right through the middle of the ELS's formation.

And cut a path they did, as a massive hole appeared in the ELS lines, and the 0M2 and Qan[T] flew right through it. Jade winced as she could feel the ELS in her mind. "We're trying to _talk_ to you dammit!" She shouted, as Setsuna used his GN sword bits to form a shield, blocking the ELS MS's strikes as she covered his back.

" _Why does your heart falter?!_ " A familiar voice shouted, as Jade and Setsuna glanced up to see the Union Brave Commander Type of Graham Aker fly towards them - firing its GN Beam weapons madly at the ELS attacking them. " _You should be saying you're fighting for the sake of living!_ " The remaining Brave's from his squadron formed up around them as they defended the two Gundam's. " _To continue that existence full of contradictions! That's what it means to live!_ "

The Brave's sped forward as they began firing at the ring of ELS surrounding the planetoid ELS. " _Go forth, young lad!_ " Graham shouted. " _Live and unlock the future!_ "

Jade chuckled. "I remember when he was a Bushido-worshiping asshole…" she muttered, "Come on Setsuna! We've got a First Contact to make!" And with that, the two continued their advance forward.

More particle fire came at them, fired from assimilated _Nile_ battleships, but it impacted an invisible wall in front of them.

"You heard _the_ idiot, get moving!"

Over the two Mobile Suits came their much larger counterpart. The _Ra Cailum_ overcame them, shielding the two mobile suits with her own shields and hull. " _We'll take as much fire as we can: escort that moron to the damn thing!"_

"I thought you didn't think this would work."

" _Shut up and get on with the goddamn job! We don't have all day!_ "

More fire rained on the _Ra Cailum_ , impacting with bright flares of light before they began to ignore the mobile suits in favor of the _Ra Cailum_.

It was the most powerful ship they knew of.

If they took it, this would _end_.

Ron would rather destroy his ship then let the metal have it, and all the information stored in its databanks.

It would mean the end of dozens of universes.

"Corpsa, fire everything we have, I don't care what it is." Ron ordered, oddly calm in the face of the threat. He was focusing his rage, turning it into a fine point. Blind rage would do him no good. "Riza, pull us away, distract it."

"Reloading photon torpedo tubes, phasers firing. But we're not going to last much longer: shields are at 49%."

"Very well. Computer, initiate auto-destruct system, authorization Pinkerton Omega-Pi-Four-Seven-Gamma-Alpha-Alpha-Four-Niner-Tau. 20 minutes, variable silent countdown."

The computer beeped. " _Auto-destruct engaged. Awaiting final code._ "

"Authorization Pinkerton-Four-Two-Nine, passcode: Landru. Enable."

" _Confirmed. Auto-destruct in five minutes."_

"Dreadnought-class ELS coming up on portside!" Cassie called out.

"Corpsa, _kill it._ "

"With pleasure!"

* * *

"OPEN! OPEN GODDAMN YOU _!_ " Jade shouted, as she and Setsuna continued to fire at the massive ship and its metallic minions.

" _Jade, what if I use TRANS-AM to-_ "

"Hell no! The only way your suit's gonna work to initiate contact is WITH Trans-Am, and you ain't wasting that here! You know it's just gonna shrug off beam weaponry!"

" _Young man!"_ Aker's voice intruded on the comms. His Brave, partially assimilated, sped into view, heading directly for the moon-sized ELS. " _I, Graham Aker, will gladly open your path! This is not death!"_ The Brave burned red as it's Trans-Am was keyed to overload. " _It's for mankind to live into the future!"_

With an explosion rivaling that of a photon torpedo, Graham Aker's Brave Command Type detonated, tearing a massive hole into the side of the planetoid.

"There!" Jade shouted. "Setsuna, that's your opening! I'll cover you!"

The 00 Qan[T] shot forward, heading down into the planet. Hundreds of ELS attempted to rush after him, but phaser beams impacted and destroyed the smaller forms as the _Ra Cailum_ made its' approach. "Get the hell out of here!"

" _Warning: auto-destruct is active. Two minutes, thirty seconds to destruct._ "

"Wha-RON WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

" _I'm not letting them take my damned ship!_ " Ron informed, " _I'll destroy it before they do!_ "

"Oh for fuck's - SETSUNA HURRY YOUR ASS UP!" Jade shouted, following the Innovade in.

* * *

The two mobile suits continued their way inside the ELS worldship (as Jade was beginning to coin it), meeting no real resistance as they flew deeper inside.

"While you were out, Setsuna - I modded the 00 Quanta and my machine with a docking mechanism." Jade informed, "I'll sync my drive to your machine… that way you can go over full-power with them, we're gonna need it."

" _Roger that._ "

" _There!_ " Jade glanced up, seeing what looked like a large, organic-looking sphere before them. " _That must be the center!_ "

The two mobile suits moved over the center - hovering over it before the 0 Gundam docked with the Quanta. "Surrendering control to you, Setsuna." Jade said, cracking her neck. "Let's start this light show."

" _Activating Quantum Burst!_ " Setsuna shouted, as the Gundam began to glow in Trans-Am - its GN Bits flying around, positioning themselves around his machine while the leg armor was disengaged, allowing for the full system to activate.

Jade winced as the ELS began to overload them with data - but Tieria helped manage it through their joint Veda connection.

And then… they saw it. Flashes of images, of planets so very far away. And they saw their history, their truth.

How they became to be, how they evolved, how they grew, how they communicated. How they came here.

Their homeworld was devastated by a supernova. But to survive… they left their world on a single ship. The very ship they found themselves within now.

"I see..." Tieria mused, as the three watched it all play out through the ELS's memories. "It looks like their world is dying… maybe they're looking for a way to survive."

"It seems like they are seeking mutual understanding through connecting and becoming one being. " Setsuna speculated.

"They don't know their hurting people… " Jade muttered, chuckling bitterly. "What do ya know… I was right… "

"Let's go to their homeworld." Setsuna said. "We need to understand each other."

"Is that really a good idea?"

"It doesn't matter if it's good or bad," Setsuna shook his head. "It's just… the meaning of life that I've found. It's the same for us all. To live. To know what it is to live. But… why do we misunderstand each other like this?"

"Despite our intelligence, we're thoughtless and have trivial misunderstanding." Tieria said.

"Whether or not it's true, we're not much different from each other." Setsuna stated.

"If we don't come to an understanding… maybe we just never noticed it."

"That's why it has to be pointed out. For the world… something as simple as this..."

Jade sighed. "Well, while you two are sputtering all this, can we _please_ tell the ELS to stop before my boyfriend blows up his own ship?" she muttered.

" _...only you could've ruined this moment, Jaden..._ "

"Its. _Jade._ "

* * *

"The 00 Quanta and 0 Gundam just came out!"

Ron glanced up "What are they doing now?"

"The… ELS let them out?" Corpsa asked, "Wait… the Quanta just vanished! And… uh… Captain? The ELS is..."

Ron looked, and saw the ELS just… stop. All their assimilations were just… paused in place, all of their units were falling back, returning to the mothership… which started to reform, shifting and changing. Ron thought they were about to recreate a Starfleet weapon…

...instead, they recreated a desert flower.

"That is the corniest, sappiest and most retarded shit I've ever seen."

"Ruining the moment."

"I don't care. It's true. Computer, deactivate auto-destruct system, authorization Pinkerton Omega-Pi-Four-Seven-Gamma-Alpha-Alpha-Four-Niner-Tau."

A beep was heard before the computer made a tone. " _Auto-destruct deactivated._ "

"Get us the hell away from that thing. Maintain combat alert."

Cassie looked at her console as it began beeping. "We're being hailed. ...It's the ELS moon...thing."

"Oh, and NOW they decide to fucking use subspace comms?! Assholes. Put it through: I'm going to make them regret this."

The screen displayed static, but the audio came through clearly. " _You. call. Us. the. ELS._ " What sounded like several voices speaking at once said. " _We. Could. Not. Understand. Until. Now. We. Did. Not. know. The. Harm. We. Brought._ "

"Jade is _so_ gonna say 'I told ya so' when she gets back..." Riza muttered.

"She can kiss my ass. I gave you EVERY chance to use subspace a few hours ago!"

" _We. Did not. Know. How._ " The ELS replied. " _She. Told. Us. How._ "

"Oh, and that makes it all better?!"

 _"We. Know. Why You. Do not. Want. To. Speak. to. Us. We. remind. You. of. The—"_

"You say that last word, I will not be held responsible for the consequences."

" _Ron, calm the fuck down._ " Jade's voice came through on the comms. " _Either way, the ELS have agreed to help repair any and all damage they caused to us, the ESF and everyone currently within the Sol System - and anyone who was assimilated by the ELS is going to be fixed as well. This was all one huge misunderstanding, and they want to make right._ "

 _"She. Speaks. The. truth."_

"Stay the hell away from me. Pinkerton out."

The line was cut. Ron rapidly left the bridge, punching a wall as he entered a turbolift, screaming in rage.

* * *

Jade wasn't happy with Ron. Understandably.

Did he have his issues with the Borg? Yes, but taking it out on the ELS was stupid. Similar they may be, the ELS was actually taking responsibility for the destruction they caused. They were trying to right their wrongs, and help the people they had hurt. They even allowed Starfleet to keep samples of the ELS materials for research purposes! And yet he refused to stop comparing them to the Borg.

' _This is getting fucking stupid..._ ' she thought, walking towards his quarters. "Cassie, he in there?"

"He's in there. And he doesn't want to see anyone."

"Too fucking bad. Open it." The door opened, Ron sitting at his desk.

"Get out."

"No, you stubborn fucking jackass. You are going to get up and talk to me. There is something fucking wrong with you, Pinkerton. They aren't the Borg, yet you won't see them as anything but!"

"Get. Out."

"You keep thinking about what they have in common, and why their fucking different!" Jade shouted. "What more do the ELS need to do to show you they are not like the Borg?! They've promised to fix damage, they're letting Starfleet research them, they're doing everything they can to help people like that schoolgirl who got hit by ELS fragments to regain a normal life! What else do they have to fucking do to prove they are NOT like the fucking Borg?!"

"GET OUT!" He was angry at _everyone_ and _everything_ , it seemed.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, Ron?!"

"Because I can't kill the fucking Borg!" He stood, shouting. "Because I'm a fucking hypocrite! I look at those things and I keep seeing my own assimilation! I look at the victims and I see me! You fucking get it now?! If the Borg weren't so fucking useful for defending against extragalactic threats, we would have wiped them out the _second_ we stepped into the fucking Delta Quadrant two years ago!" He slumped back into his chair.

"I just want to go home and build things again."

Jade sighed. That made some sense - as destructive as they were, the Borg were the go-to race when dealing with threats not even Starfleet could handle alone. Their capacity to adapt, as hateful as it was, was also… invaluable.

That posed one problem.

Trauma. The only real way Ron could deal with the Borg was to do what he could to destroy them, to bring some kind of justice to their victims.

But his hands were tied. So he tried to substitute the Borg with the ELS. If he destroyed them, he might get some form of closure.

...Ron's brain was fucked up in more ways than one.

She walked over to Ron. "Ron… look." Jade said. "I'm not gonna sit here and say I know how you feel… but taking it out on the ELS isn't going to help anything… the Borg _will_ get what's coming to them someday. May not be for a long time, maybe even after we're all gone and dead… but the people whose lives they ruined will someday get proper justice."

Ron's head simply hit the desk, a quiet sob being heard.

He was insane, he was a great man...but he was so broken it wasn't funny.

"Stay here. I'll get the fleet moving."

She left him in the dark, to grieve and mourn.

It was 12 years long overdue.

* * *

 **117Jorn: Huh… that ending was a bit dark...**

 **Ron the True Fan: What'd you expect? The man is FUCKED. Spend more than five milliseconds with the Borg Collective and you're fucked for life. He spent almost a _decade_ and got mutilated for it!**

 **Takeshi Yamato: And so Awakening of the Trailblazer comes to an end. Where to next? Well, let's just say it's got some interesting tech for us…**

 **Redemption's Avenger: With a few more… interesting developments.**

 **Ron the True Fan: And on with the show.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	61. Chapter 61

**Location: Unknown**

 **Date: Unknown (Local)**

* * *

"So Cassie, tell me I'll be giving Ron some good news and we're back at his universe?"

"I would… but I would be lying."

"Fuuuck…" Jade groaned, looking out the window where the red planet of Mars below them.

They weren't home. Ron was most likely going to be screaming for days before he found whatever stupidity there was and choked it to death.

For two years, the _Ra Cailum_ had been on their Odyssey. And for two years, every time they jumped universes, _without fail_ , Ron took his frustrations out on some dumb bastard that shot at his ship, tried to kill them or something else incredibly stupid that put him in a murderous mood.

Thankfully though, it seemed today it didn't seem like anyone was around to take shots at them… _yet_ at least. "Just keep the fleet cloaked, and start scanning the system." She said. "Let's figure out what kind of Earth we ended up in this time…"

They weren't going to be left wondering for long.

* * *

Meanwhile, a universe away (literally) was a single ship. Larger than the _Ra Cailum_ , but much less powerful, it was a heavily modified _Punic_ -Class supercarrier, using technology STILL in the prototype stage for the UNSC _Infinity_ , which was still under construction in the Sol Oort cloud.

Her name was UNSC _Mother of Invention_.

" _This is an awfully big risk you are talking, Director._ " Admiral Margaret Orlenda Parangosky spoke on the comms at the Director of Project: Freelancer. " _I don't need to remind you how much this program is costing the UNSC._ "

"You and I both know the gravity of the situation after losing Reach." The Director stated, paying little attention to the director of ONI and more at his own intelligence reports. "The _Ra Cailum_ and her friends dealt the Covenant a devastating blow, but if we're to actually turn the tide of the war, we need access to the infinite possibilities of the multiverse… just as _they_ do."

" _Just don't choke on your own aspirations, Director._ " The Admiral said plainly. " _Remember I saved your project - this is your last chance to show some real results._ "

"I assure you, when the _Invention_ returns, we will have all the spoils the cosmos has to offer, Admiral Parangosky." He said reassuringly. "Humanity, and the whole of the UNSC will benefit greatly from anything and everything we bring back."

" _And if you encounter the_ Ra Cailum _? Her captain was most insistent that no technologies fall into our hands to prevent 'cultural contamination'_." What an idiotic notion. Humanity was on the verge of extinction and Ronald Pinkerton dared to quote a directive on cultural preservation?!

"They won't give us their technology, Admiral. They will do nothing if the technology is from the origin universe. Their 'prime directive' prevents them from doing so." And that was why Parangosky even bothered with this.

Leonard Church had psychoanalyzed Ronald Pinkerton, finding that, while most of his battle tactics were impossible to predict (other than their ending: everyone being dead and the _Ra Cailum_ just cruising by) he played fast and loose with Starfleet's regulations when they got in the way of a job being done. If Project Freelancer got their hands on technology from another universe, he would simply quote the prime directive and say 'I can't do anything'.

It was the closest they would get towards assistance from him. Non-interference was better than nothing. The key was simply not to get on his bad side.

This operation _needed_ to happen: the tech dump they received from the transmission from the _Ra Cailum_ containing data on their multiverse-traveling engines was a _goldmine_ for the UNSC. Any other pieces of technology, resources or otherwise that could be brought back could yield just as great results. Anything and everything to attain the survival of humanity as a free species.

" _All I can do is wish you luck, Director._ " The Admiral said, " _And don't disappoint us._ " With that final statement, the image of the admiral vanished.

"Counselor Price?"

Aiden Price, second in command and psychologist for Project Freelancer, came up beside Church. "Yes, director?"

"Are our escorts loaded?"

"All 12 frigates are ready, but the Shortswords are proving… problematic. We are not the UNSC _Spirit of Fire_ , Director."

"No, Councilor, we are not. That ship gave itself and her crew to saving humanity." Oh, the Spirit's fate was not a secret. They knew she went after the Prophet of Regret for some reason. The how and the why were a mystery. But the end result was a lost ship and a prolonged war. Church figured they owed James Cutter somehow.

"Just make sure they are loaded, and ready to deploy the moment we transition out of our universe." The Director said. "We don't know what we'll run into first, best to be prepared."

"I will inform the deck crews, Director." The Councilor nodded. "It's going to be a busy day."

The _MoI_ (never called the French 'moi' or 'me', always Em-Oh-Eye in shorthand) had her warp drive, but it was experimental.

They would solve the problems en route. Humans were the best at that.

"All hands, this is the director. Once we transit out, we will not be coming back until we have a collection of technologies and weapons to safeguard humanity from the alien threat. We may even encounter the _Ra Cailum_. But I expect you to be the best. You are humanity's greatest warriors. That is all."

The final supply ship departed, allowing the ship to leave.

"Engage the warp drive."

The modified _Punic's_ new nacelles glowed, forming a subspace bubble, more commonly called a warp field, around the ship, launching it forward past the speed of light.

"Speed?" Church asked, gripping a handrail to steady himself through the shaking and rumbles.

"Warp three point seven." The helmsman reported. "Holding steady."

"Prepare to initiate the multiversal wormhole generator." he said, "Hall hands, brace for transition!"

* * *

"Okay, so far it looks like it's a pre-FTL civilization…" Jade mused, looking over the report. "Nothing of any real-"

" _Jade? We've got a subspace distortion!_ " Cassie called over the comms.

"What kind?"

" _Wormhole kind._ "

The _Morningstar_ CO groaned "Cassie, please tell me it's not the Ico-Bitch." she muttered, exiting the ready room and entering the bridge. "I don't think Ron can take running into her _this soon_ after the ELS…"

The ship exited the wormhole, revealed to be a large titanium-plated starship, larger than the _Ra Cailum_ , but less advanced.

It was a UNSC-designed starship, _Punic_ -Class. "…Ok, when the hell did the UNSCDF get their hands on warp technology? And when the hell did they develop it into a wormhole drive?"

"Well, remember that someone transmitted a big data package over to that Prowler, which transmitted back to their command." Cassie said. "I guess it's only natural they'd catch up with us eventually…"

Jade sighed "Fuck… Ron's not gonna be happy about this…" she muttered.

"Do tell." Jade froze at hearing Ron's voice. "What am I not going to be happy about?" Jade tried to forestall the inevitable, but Ron could literally see through her if he wanted. And he was.

"When the hell did we jump back to the Halo universe? …Wait a minute, those are warp nacelles. When the fuck did the UNSCDF make a warpship?!"

"Uhhh… well Ron, it looks like the UNSC rebuilt the wormhole drive from… whatever they got from that data dump they received when we visited them last time." Jade answered.

"…Fuck this. Keep the ship cloaked. They don't have our defense systems: they want to blow themselves up in a quest across the multiverse, they can have fun."

"We're doing the same."

"Jade, when we jumped into your universe, it was unintentional. They rebuilt it intentionally. So we're following standard 'not get involved' procedure."

"Fair enough." She said, "Anyways… forwarded the report on the new universe too you - seem's we're in a pre-FTL Sol… and it looks like they've got Mobile Suits here too. I've actually spotted a few references to the term Gundam too…"

"If there's ELS, we are _not_ going through that shit again."

"No ELS, but no energy weapons, either. Wonder why." An alert sounded before Cassie's physical body entered the bridge, giving Jade a peck on the cheek before taking her post. "Five ships on an intercept course with the _Punic_ , IFF IDing her as UNSC _Mother of Invention_."

"As in necessity? Cute. Keep us cloaked. If we're lucky, we won't even get involved verbally."

* * *

"Sir, five unknown vessels are approaching."

"Show me, F.I.L.L.S." The Director said, as the nearest monitor displayed a group of battleship-esc vessels steadily approaching them. "Anything on them?"

" _Sensors indicate high levels of electromagnetic interference emanating from the vessels engines._ " FILLS informed. " _They utilize standard railgun-based projectiles, however they appear weaker than our mainstay MAC Gun's. Warning: humanoid mobile weapons consistent with mobile suits are being launched._ "

"Battlestations." The director said, as klaxon alarms go off. "Aim to disable as many ships as possible, as well as those mobile suits - let's see what they're made of. Prepare the team for boarding actions against the flagship once it has been downed."

The _MoI's_ prototype plasma weapons fired on the battleships, but they didn't burn through. The were just deflected. "FILLS!"

 _"Armor appears to be plasma-resistant. Recommend switching to conventional weapons._ "

Ironic. The most powerful weapons the ship had were useless against these things. "Very well then. Reconfigure to conventional weapons. Fire at will!"

Thankfully, the MAC Guns aboard the _MoI_ proved to be far more effective, as the massive ship fired off one of its two Super MAC's at the first flanking ship - the projectile moving at 4% the speed of light essentially reduced the ship into scrap metal with a single shot. The _MoI_ was quick to adjust fire to the next vessel - as the remaining four began to take evasive maneuvers, but they were far too slow as the second Bigstick fired, knocking out the second battleship with ease.

The enemy mobile suits were moving in as well to engage, however they were met by the hail of Onager MAC Guns built across the hull of the mighty supercarrier - and it was made all the more difficult as they launched their own complement of interceptors to engage the mobile suits. While they may not be as maneuverable, so long as they stayed out of melee-range, they should be fine.

Two railgun rounds veered off, heading into space.

Or so everyone thought.

* * *

The _Ra Cailum_ shuddered.

"That just hit us, didn't it."

"And punched a hole in the hull: deck 9, section 12. Breach is contained."

Jade looked at Sonja from across the bridge. "How did that go through the hull?"

"It hit a window. Transparent aluminium isn't that durable, Jade."

"I thought we were phase shifted?"

"Phase shift requires additional power. While we have enough to last forever, I'm not one to waste something uselessly. But, They hit my ship. And do you know what that means?"

"Rape?"

"Decloak and prepare to fire. Jade, get to your Gundam."

"Ron, energy weapons are useless against that—" Ron gestured to his head. "Oh. Borg. You're a cheating bastard."

"Better to cheat than to die."

A Nietzschean mindset, but she supposed it was true.

* * *

Another battleship died to a MAC round, leaving two ships and fifteen mobile suits left over.

"Target the next ship and prepare to fire! I want a Archer salvo to deter that trio of mobile suits-"

"Sir! New contact- Oh my god, it's _her_!"

Decloaking in front of the _Mother of Invention_ was the ship that had single handedly decimated a Covenant fleet and saved millions of civilians from Reach.

It was the _Ra Calium._

"Where the hell did she come from?!"

"Well, sir, we know she has perfect cloaking ability—"

"Councilor, that was not my question. That ship shouldn't be here at the same time as us! The likelihood of that is almost nil!"

Price almost laughed. "The _Ra Cailum_ seems to tell the odds to go to hell, Director."

The Director simply sighed. "Just make it clear to all forces not to engage that ship!" he ordered, "If they do, they're at _his_ mercy, not mine! "

* * *

Jade had almost skipped to her machine.

She was with Ron, she was his girlfriend and he was up to something.

Something small, red and round. He was making a ring, she was sure of it. And that meant he was going to marry someone.

Jade hoped he was going to ask her to marry him.

Still, she had idiots to shoot in the face.

The 0 Gundam Mk-II shot out from the _Morningstar_ along with the rest of Anubis Division as they flew into the battlespace. "Okedoky, what do we have today..," she said as she flew towards the closest battleship - as several mobile suits floated between her and it. ' _Oh how cute, they wanna play._ ' she thought smirking as she pulled out her beam sabers.

The machine pulled out an axe, swinging it into her saber. The plasma beam was useless as it bent around the axe, made of the same material as the armor.

"Oh, that's bullshit! RON!"

 _"Keep shooting them. I'll send corrections as soon as I get the data I need."_

Even the Borg needed time to adapt. This was bullshit! "The one universe we jump to that has beam-proof armor!" she muttered, as she drew out her beam rifle as she began firing at the machines as they chased after her. The shots simply scorched their armor a bit at first, more or less just pinging off of it - before one of her shots suddenly blasted off an arm.

" _Got it!_ "

"Finally!" She grinned as she swung her saber downward - slicing the second MS in half. " _Now_ we're playing fair!"

The other MS froze before Jade just shot them. It was good to have full power again.

That being said, those two warships were being assholes. And assholes they no longer were as the _Ra Cailum_ shot them with her phaser arrays, knocking them out.

"And being a cheating bastard is such a good thing." Jade giggled. "So… who wants to ring up the UNSC?"

" _Actually, it looks like they're hailing us. Hang on… this is Pinkerton, what the fuck do you want?_ "

" _Crude and blunt, just as we remember Captain Pinkerton._ " Came a rather texan accent. " _Surprised to run into you so soon._ "

" _Get to the point. What the hell are you doing here and give me one reason not to shoot your ass out of the sky. As you're no doubt aware, even with your upgrades, you're still no match for an_ Odyssey _-Class superdreadnought._ "

" _Well, sir, allow me to remind you of your Prime Directive._ "

" _The directive doesn't protect you if the technology came from us to begin with. Now, answer my question._ "

" _Quite simple, Captain. We are simply embarking upon our own little odyssey across the multiverse._ " The Director said. " _Exploring new worlds, seeking out new life, going where no man - from our universe at least - had gone before… and bring back whatever we can which will protect the UNSC and humankind from the Covenant._ "

" _Alright, time for a spoiler warning: you win. The Covenant is going to fracture after the UNSC_ Pillar of Autumn _discovers a ringworld called Delta Halo._ "

"Ron, it's Alpha—"

" _Zero. Four. Greek alphabet, Jade. Recite it._ "

Jade sighed. "Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta—"

" _You proved my point, Jade. Thank you._ "

He hated when people called it 'Alpha'. It did make SOME sense: it was the fourth Halo and Delta was the fourth Greek letter.

 _"Anyway, results in the Elite that led the invasion of Reach to be shamed, turned into an Arbiter and basically fuck the Prophets with their own pitchforks."_

" _And how the hell would you know that, Captain?_ " The director asked.

" _Sending you files titled 'Halo Games' to you now. Have fun._ "

He was still pissed and his trolling was out in full, unrelenting force.

At least he wasn't killing them.

 _"Jade, bring the wreckage of one of those things in. Maybe we can actually use them for something. That armor could hold up to phaser strikes. Until I made the modifications to the DEWs, they could actually stalemate us, and I'd rather not waste torpedoes on minnows. "_

"Got it, bringing it back." Jade said, grabbing what was left of the MS she had sliced in half. "Just more toys for us to play with, eh _?_ "

 _"Think of it like this. We modify that shit, we get better resistance to energy weapons for our ships and maybe our security armor."_

"Please, don't make me think of that. I'm having a hard time not beaming back and kissing you."

And the awkwardness was about to begin. " _Captain… who is that_?"

 _"Ugh. Jade Takeo. It's a long story."_

* * *

And watching from below, seeing the general asskicking, were someone marginally more important.

"Gjallarhorn got _fucked_ …" Eugene muttered, looking at the camera images from the battle that just happened overhead. "Never seen them take hits like that unless it was Mika doing it…"

The white-haired leader of their group, Orga Itsuka, hummed in thought as he watched the replay of the battle between the two giant ships against the group of Gjallarhorn ships. Calling it a battle was generous: it was a slaughter.

The worrying part, though, was the beam weapons.

Their encounter with a Mobile Armor showed how useless those were against nanolaminate armor.

At least for the first two or three minutes, then the armor was fucking useless. These people were VERY smart to modify their weapons on the fly.

At least smarter than THEY were. Seriously, not a one of them had a proper education: Kudelia's teaching them to write aside, Tekkadan's majority members were VERY fucking ignorant.

Not their fault. Just a fact.

"So… what do we do?" The Co-Commander of Tekkadan asked the boss. "I mean… we can't exactly _ignore_ this… we don't know what they'll do to Mars and Chryse… "

Orga nodded. "You're right on that… " he said, "If I were to guess, Kudelia may want to contact them to make their intentions clear… "

"And we'll be coming along for escort duty, as usual." Eugene sighed. "Don't worry boss, I'll get the others ready."

This was going to change history.

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: So, from one Gundam timeline to the next. That's a first.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yep. And the most recent timeline, to boot. Honestly, I think the Cosmic Era (SEED/Destiny), AD (00), and Post-Disaster (IBO) timelines are my favorites in the Gundam franchise, though SEED and Destiny definitely have their share of faults - but that's what fanfics are for. (Ron: Universal Century trumps all!)**

 **Redemption's Avenger: I agree with Take there, but it is soooooo nice to not have your protagonists spouting moral shit into our ears. Instead, Mika just kills everyone!**

 **Ron the True Fan: If you're on the battlefield, you don't BITCH AND WHINE. You DO YOUR JOB. If that means a few dozen people trying to kill you have to die, SO BE IT.**

 **RA: You know all those dumbasses in Gjallarhorn? Like Iok and co? Yeah, we're gonna be _cleansing_ the Gjallarhorn gene pool. Also, some new MS come into play!**

 **Ruby: Yes!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	62. Chapter 62

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

"Well?"

"Do you want me to talk about how fucking STUPID the UNSC was in retrofitting that ship or how lucky they are that it didn't explode before they got to warp 2?" Sonja snarled, throwing her hands into the air.

Ron raised an eyebrow in amusement. Granted, THEY had done some fucking stupid shit in the last 4 years.

"You're shitting me."

"Their engineers are more insane than mine are. And not in the good way." So they didn't bother making sure any of this shit was safe. Even Ron wanted safety first.

"How bad?"

"As in blow up and possibly tear a hole in the multiverse bad."

Ron whistled.

"We are surrounded by idiots. Desperate idiots."

"Their reactor barely has the output to get them to warp 4 and that's when you shut EVERYTHING down, the nacelles are too small—"

"I get it, Sonja: they were stupid." Ron held up his hands to stop her tirade. "If it weren't for the fact they didn't kill themselves and we aren't cleaning up their mess, I'd send them back."

"If we could."

"Of course if we could. I'd blackmail Q into doing it."

"Nope!" Q's disembodied voice shouted.

"You got _no_ idea asshat!"

Sonja shook her head. "Well, if we can't do that, then they'll have to follow us along. Also… do you remember a group of Spartan-IIIs that RWBY encountered on Reach?"

"Be specific, there were a good amount of Spartans on Reach."

"The ones that had a Scorpion with an VI and a Warthog that played spanish polka music."

"LOVE those guys. I keep them in reserve until I want someone driven insane by someone not me." He shrugged. "Sometimes you have to delegate."

"Sir, you are the most insane thing in the multiverse."

"Most insane single thing in the multiverse. Collectively, they outgun me." She gave him a look of 'bullshit'. "Marginally."

"Well, Tex was a Freelancer, and the rest of the Freelancers are on the _MoI._ "

"I see. So, were they all modified to be Spartans?"

"Spartan-IVs. The idiots are 'prototypes'. That being said, we'll have to deal with security breaches out the ass with them along, Captain. They're ONI. As bad as Section 31." In his wheelchair (and did he HATE it) Takeshi and Ron shared a glance.

"31's worse."

"That's for sure," Takeshi remarked. "At least ONI doesn't screw around with Borg tech."

At least Flay had 'apologized' by making the wheelchair. It was an anti-grav hover-chair thing, but it was able to interface at least partially with the nanites in his system, meaning he could control it rather easily.

He was still wanting to have Ron kill her at some point, but she'd managed to push that day back a bit with the wheelchair.

And he was sure Ron was delaying as well.

If only to find a creative way to kill her while being insanely painful and morbidly entertaining.

Trust me, the only people in the multiverse who look forward to killing some dumb idiot more than him are Darth Vader and Emperor 'So many insulting nicknames it would fill a bible-sized book' Palpatine. Ron took third place.

"And now for this week's bullshit. What can you tell me about the local situation and how am I going to be involved in solving it?"

"You're not bothering to consider not getting involved?"

"Our luck fucking blows. Might as well give up on the non-interference part of the Prime Directive while I'm at it."

"Fair enough," came Takeshi's reply. "As far as we can tell, the idiots who attacked the _MoI_ and then shot at us belonged to some organization called 'Gjallarhorn'. It seems like they're supposed to be official 'peacekeepers' in the Earth and Mars regions."

"A-LAWS clones."

"More or less and just as corrupt."

"Someone shoot me now." Takeshi pulled out his shotgun and fired a single shell into Ron's heavily shielded head.

Ron blinked rapidly and fixed Take with a look. "… _Why_?"

He grinned. "You DID say shoot me and it was worded as an order."

"…I wonder why I haven't shot you yet."

"Because you care too much about your sister to leave her a widow," Takeshi countered.

"Touche."

* * *

Jade Takeo was happier than a clam.

The reasons were simple. One, she got to take a look at the abomination of a _Punic_ and make it better.

Two, she got to hang off of Ron's arm.

"Let go of my arm, damn it."

"Nope!" Jade chirped happily. "I like it here!"

While they were together, he was STILL uncomfortable with her being clingy and flirty.

Mostly because Cassie and Annette weren't. They were composed, dignified. Jade… wasn't. Or if she was, she didn't _want_ to act like it.

It was definitely different from his other two girlfriends. And he wasn't used to it.

Even if they slept together less than a day prior, this was going to be something to get used to. And he was going to be getting used to it: his mother was subvocal about Ron making sure Jade stayed with him or she would be making his life a living hell.

Jade knew she only cared about having grandkids to spoil. It was a Nietzschean thing and she was more Nietzschean then he was by half. Literally.

At the very least, he had other things to take his mind off the issue, at least partially.

Such as looking over the _MoI_ to see just how badly they'd screwed themselves over.

And, if Ron was willing, to make it better.

"Woman, I need you to focus on how we're gonna fix-"

"Psh, I finished remaking the schematics hours ago." She said, handing him the blueprints. "We had the stock _Punic_ specs acquired when we first visited the Halo-verse. I just had to make some mods… adding a warp core, replacing the titanium A3 with Tritanium, the usual stuff."

"Well, would you mind LETTING GO of my arm? You're going to make them AND me more uncomfortable than I already am."

"Well, we COULD get more comfortable, if you get my meaning, Ronnie-kun~"

The look of horror in Ron's eyes was priceless, Jade would gladly admit. Thankfully for Ron (and disappointingly for Jade, who was looking forward to having some fun) they were about to arrive on the command deck. And she was sure everyone would object to one of his senior engineers hanging off his arm.

She just giggled as she finally let go before the door to the command deck slid open, allowing them access inside.

"Captain Pinkerton. Welcome to the _Mother of Invention_."

Ron and Jade exited the tram, heading into the command center, finding the commanding officer, wearing an ONI-type uniform, standing near a plotting table.

"And you must be the director."

"I could be a naval officer, Captain." The man countered.

"Not likely: no rank or insignia, not to mention the ONI garb. You're a civilian. And a suicidal one at that. Your ship just wasn't designed for the shit you just pulled."

"Unlike your Starfleet, Captain - the UNSC doesn't have several dozen alien allies to call upon for resources." The Director said. "We have to make due with what we have, or what we salvage from the Covenant. And now that Reach has fallen, it's all the more imperative we return home with technology and resources that can make a difference."

"So you synthesized dilithium, created a subpar warp drive and replicated our wormhole drive. And you nearly got yourselves killed doing this: your reactor barely has the power to get your ship to warp 2 and keep the ship intact. You're even luckier that your plasma shields worked against the interstellar dust at warp speed."

"Yes, we didn't take all of your technical difficulties of working with warp drive into account. There wasn't time. But with you here—"

"Why the fuck should I help you, director? The Prime Directive—"

"You'll do it, Captain." The director said. "Like it or not, we have achieved warp capacity, regardless of our methods. We may not be as far technologically as you or anyone else from your galaxy, but we now stand equivalent to any other race who may apply for Federation membership." He then glaced at Ron. "Why else would you have come here, Captain?"

"To find out why you did this. I would love nothing better then to send you back to your universe. But I can't even get back to mine. Jade?"

"Yup~?"

"Supply them with a tesseract communicator. The UNSC needs a combative edge and that armor made your plasma weapons and even our phasers useless until I came up with a countermeasure."

"You got it!" Jade grinned as she turned around and ran off, giggling at the prospect of working on a ship as big as the _MoI_ \- much to the unnerving of the crew.

The Director looked at Ron, an eyebrow raised in question. "Your phasers were working fine."

"After we reconfigured them to counteract the dampening effect. It wasn't that easy."

"Ra Cailum _to bossman: we've got another ship en route._ "

Ron growled. "Fuck. Beam me back to the ship: I'll deal with them from the bridge of my own ship."

* * *

The ship was tiny compared to the Gjallarhorn battleships, but those were destroyed by the two superdreadnoughts in orbit of Mars.

Orga had no idea if they would shoot on sight or not. Didn't matter.

"So… how will we know that they won't shoot at us?" Eugine asked.

"When they don't, probably… " Orga said, glancing at the person chosen to be the one to make contact with these newcomers: Kudelia Aina Bernstein. "You sure you got this?"

"I admit, first contact wasn't something I ever expected to be doing," She said, "But… I suppose we should be prepared for anything these days, no?"

Orga smirked slightly "True." He said before he sighed. "Alright… let's give them a call. Open a hailing frequency… you're on, ma'am."

Aina nodded as she moved over to the comm station. "This is Representative Kudelia Aina Bernstein, representing the Mars Chryse Autonomous Region, addressing unknown vessels ahead." She spoke, "We come in peace, and we wish to speak with your leaders."

There was a long pause on the comms. "Maybe… they don't understand?" Eugene asked, "I mean… their aliens, right?"

A moment later, they got a response.

In english.

" _This is Fleet Admiral Ronald Pinkerton of the United Federation of Planets starship_ Ra Cailum _to Representative Bernstein. Keep your weapons deactivated: in case you're wondering, we already have a counter to your nanolaminate armor and your projectile weapons wouldn't make a dent in our shields anyways. You are clear to dock on starboard side airlock, saucer section. And yes, we're human._ "

"…forget I said anything…"

"Oh! Umm, thank you, Admiral Pinkerton." Kudelia said. "Weapons are offline, and we shall adjust our heading. Again, thank you."

" _Don't bother with the niceties. Pinkerton out._ " The link was cut almost immediately.

"Dick."

"No, I suspect he's got problems of his own and just doesn't have the patience to be polite to us. He seemed almost… rushed and annoyed."

* * *

He was, as two Freelancers had dragged him to their training room.

He was facing off against Agents Carolina and Maine, the former of which was trying very hard to kill him.

It was like facing Tex.

But, as we all know, Ron beat Tex.

As such, Ron was almost boredly beating the crap out of Carolina and Maine, pissing both off in the process.

The two were doing their damnedest to try and beat him to a pulp, since they figured they couldn't kill him, but he was barely even breaking a sweat!

Plasma from stolen Type-25 plasma rifles, Maine's Bruteshot and even a direct hit from a rocket: nothing was hurting him!

They thought the Covenant had shields: this man was tanking EVERYTHING they had and had more to give.

"I have better things to do, kids. Mind letting me go back to my ship?"

The two growled. He just wouldn't go down!

Maine let out a gurgled growl as he fired a full clip of Brute Shot grenades at Ron - who simply stood there, tanking the shots as if they were from a Nerf gun. He closed the distance to try and impale Ron, only to get backhanded into a wall.

"I have better fucking things to do then fighting you people." Carolina was the only REAL threat: Maine was a berserker and while Ron was also one, he was a berserker who did not lose his ability to strategize in the bloodlust. Maine rushed in without a second thought.

Carolina might not've been able to actually hurt him, but she could trap him, especially if she collapsed the support beams and crushed him. Being able to lift a shuttle wasn't worth a shit if he couldn't get in a position to lift it.

But then he could just beam out.

"Seriously, the students under me have done better than you! And they were just eighteen!" He batted away a frag grenade, sending it to Maine's feet just as he extracted himself from the wall. The resulting explosion sent him back into the hole he just vacated.

Carolina began her attack, but Ron ducked and rolled on the deck before getting back on his feet. "This is over. Either accept that or I'll force it on you."

"This is NOT OVER!" Carolina yelled, firing a rocket, only for Ron to smack the missile to the side, sending it crashing into one of the training room's walls.

Ron pulled out his phaser, resetting it to go through her shields (having impacted them enough times to know the frequency almost by heart) before pointing it at her and firing it at maximum stun.

The result was predictable: the titanium-A armor dampened the shot, but Carolina was on the deck unconscious.

Maine… was deep enough into the bulkhead that the engineers would have to cut him out, but Ron fired another shot into the hole just to make sure that he wouldn't chase after he was set free.

He'd rather not have the distraction.

"Well, time to meet the diplomats. Cassie, one to beam back."

He disappeared in a shower of light.

* * *

"The reports did not exaggerate." The Councilor commented.

The Director watched the entire event. Carolina wanting to one-up Tex was predictable, but beating Pinkerton was nigh-impossible.

Or rather WAS impossible: the Borg would adapt to anything he faced.

"I thought the ship's pilot was skilled, but this man…" He muttered. "Is something else entirely."

"He blocked and dodged everything sent his way. And the only reason he got dragged into that debacle was because he was blindsided by Agent Carolina."

"Either way, we have more pressing concerns." He said, "How goes the salvage operations?"

"Better than expected," The Councilor said, "We managed to capture several mobile suits in relatively good condition, plus scores of tactical data. Most notably is their Nanolaminate Armor, as we witnessed first hand earlier. Not only is it capable of fending against plasma weapons, prior to Mr. Pinkerton's adaptation of their weapons, it could fend against Phasers. This technology alone could change the tide of so many battles against the Covenant."

"This is just the tip of the iceberg of what we'll be bringing home," The Director said. "If this is what we came across in one universe… imagine what we could acquire from others? Have our engineers begin working on applying this new technology to the _MoI_ and our escorts. And the R &D teams to begin work on reverse-engineering our own mobile weapons."

"Director, we can't get this back home."

"The Captain mentioned a 'tesseract communicator.' Perhaps we can send the information home."

Any help he would give, they would milk to death.

* * *

A quick change of outfit to his now-hated Admiral's uniform and Ron was ready to meet with this Bernstein woman.

"I know you hate the uniform, but…" Ron looked at Jade, who looked at him in barely concealed amusement. "I like it. I'm going to enjoy taking it off you."

Ron groaned. "Not now, Jade: Christ, one time and you turn into a nymphomaniac."

"Ah, but it's _fun_ being a nymphomaniac." She giggled. "Don't worry, I'll show… _restraint_ when our guests show up."

"I seriously doubt that." Jade's grin confirmed his suspicions. It would be likely that she would be flirting with him the whole goddamn time.

The airlock door opened, allowing a young woman with ridiculously long blonde hair (Ron calculated her age as roughly 20, meaning her Rapunzel-esque hair length was unnaturally long) escorted by a small number of lightly armed men. They were no danger to him or to Jade with their PSGs: all hands now had frigate-grade shields now.

"Miss Bernstein, I presume. Welcome aboard the _Ra Cailum_."

"Thank you, Admiral Pinkerton. These are my escorts, and this," She indicated to a dark-skinned young man with a shock of white hair, who stepped up beside her. "Is Orga Itsuka, leader of Tekkadan."

"My MS Corps commander and chief research engineer, Jade Takeo."

Jade glomped his arm. "And girlfriend~"

Ron shook his arm, scowling. "Let go of my arm."

"Nope~ mine."

Kudelia blushed before Ron shoved Jade off as gently as he could, not in the mood for this. "Forgive Jade: she's a bit yandere-ish."

"Oh please, Cassie's _way_ worse than me," Jade said. "Annette coming close in second. But enough about us… so, you're the famous Miss Bernstein we've read up about, the Maiden of Revolution."

"Please don't call me that."

"I won't. I hate everyone equally, so titles are fucking worthless with me. I'll treat you like I treat anyone not part of my crew."

"With respect and dignity?"

"Scorn and insults, actually. I'm an asshole."

Jade giggled. "He's a softy. But you fuck with his crew, he will kill you. You won't know how, you won't know when… but he will kill you."

Bernstein could believe it. He probably enjoyed killing any idiots that tried to attack him. That being said, he looked more 'building things for a living' than 'merciless mass murderer'.

"Don't scare her off, Jade." Ron sighed. "Anyways, Miss Bernstein… I assume you are here to learn of our intentions?"

"Yes," She said nodding, "When two colossal ships just appear out of nowhere, people tend to want answers. You're human, but… how did you get here? And why?"

"Well, in our case, the _Ra Cailum_ has been stuck in a… multi-versal odyssey." Ron explained, "After experimenting with a new FTL device, it sent us to another reality… and we've been jumping from one universe to the next to try and make it back home. Your universe is just the latest one we've come across. So no need to worry, we're not conquerors or anything like that - we're more explorers and builders really."

"Ah…" Kudelia said, sighing a bit in relief. "Good… but what about the other ship?"

"Oh, they're the UNSC." Jade chipped in. "They're from another universe we visited, somehow they got our Wormhole specs and just recently started their own Odyssey… though theirs seem to be more focused on finding and bringing back technology and resources from other universes to help their home. I doubt that they'll want to cause any… _incidents_ with the _Ra Cailum_ around, so you shouldn't have to worry about them… but just let us know if you _do_ have trouble."

"Of course. Though…"

"We're not giving you anything."

"But I wasn't going to mention anything like that."

"You saw what we did and I can see your people's' eyes lighting up on the thought of having our technology in their hands."

Orga flinched. He WAS interested in their technology. He'd seen that Mobile Armor and with the _Ra Cailum's_ weapons punching through nanolaminate armor, energy weapons with that modification were… wanted.

It would make Tekkadan more attractive as a client. "Come on, Admiral—"

"General Order One prevents me from giving you jack shit, even if I wanted to."

"It's the Prime Directive," Jade explained, shrugging. "Sorry, we don't just hand our tech out to anyone. You have to develop warp drives first, _then_ we could talk, and even then it wouldn't be weapons tech. Trust us: we do this for your own protection. Usually when that rule gets broken, weird stuff happens."

"Like?"

"Well, one planet had a guy introduce Mein Kampf to the population and pretty much made a direct incarnation of Nazi Germany, and another one created a culture entire based off of 1920-30's lifestyle centered around big mafia gangs." Jade explained.

"Still revolved around that in the latter case, but it's more civilized." Ron added, while Kudelia and her guards just gaped at them.

"You're… kidding, right?"

"He rarely kids around, Ma'am," Jade said. One of the escorts snorted at the unintentional pun. "I can send you the reports and records on both accounts if you want proof. Point is, we're not gonna give you any new tech… on that note however, we _are_ willing to provide some humanitarian aide - help anyone who's wounded or otherwise deathly sick."

Both Orga and Kudelia's head perked at that note, glancing at one another. "…what about Paralysis?" Orga asked.

Jade and Ron blinked, before shrugging. "Sure, easy enough… someone in particular?" Ron asked.

"My brother," Orga informed. "Mika… he's the pilot of Barbatos, but using the Alaya-Vijnana System at full power… it's caused him to lose all functionality to the right side of his body when he's not plugged in."

"I can handle that myself. I can fix whatever the problem is using nanoprobes."

"Nano…probes? Is that like nano-technology?"

"It _is_ nanotechnology. More advanced than anything you've got, from the looks."

Orga all but fell over himself to get back to the ship.

He had a solution to his brother's problem.

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: Well, fun times ahead for IBO.**

 **117Jorn: Oh boy, I can't wait for Ron to meet Mika. :D**

 **Ruby: This isn't going to end well, is it?**

 **Ron the True Fan: Depends on the person. After all, Mikazuki is the actual soldier of the Gundam metaseries: he doesn't bitch and whine when he fights people. He just does the job. And Ron is similar: he'll kill and not complain when he has to do it. Unlike MANY Gundam protagonists.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: So they'll get along just fine when it comes to killing some idiots. As we will soon see.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Not to mention Takeshi's about to get a fix, too—you'll see what I mean next chapter.**

 **Ja ne!**


	63. Chapter 63

**Tekkadan destroyer _Isaribi_**

* * *

Mikazuki Argus was carried out of the ship, seriously wondering what the hell was going on, as Orga had carried him out of Barbatos and had dragged him toward the _Ra Cailum_.

He was all for following Orga's orders like a good soldier, but there was no reason for this: he was supposed to be in Barbatos.

"Orga?"

"Yes Mika?"

"What _are_ you doing?"

Orga snorted, smiling. "I am going to get your paralysis fixed."

Fix it? He could live with not being able to walk. So what if he couldn't: he was only useful in Barbatos.

They arrived at the airlock, being guided by a woman in some uniform that was halfway between the gaudy Gjallarhorn outfits and the more relaxed outfits used by Tekkadan.

Still, he didn't see the point, even if Orga wanted this for him to do.

They soon arrived in what appeared to be a medical bay, if the beds, tech, and smell of medicine was to be believed.

"So, this the new patient?" Orga glanced up to see a woman typing into some handheld device. "Ron told me the situation - just set him up on a bed, I'll take care of him."

"Right… Thank you miss…?" He asked, as he set Mika down onto the closest bed.

"Rutia Yulanra. Chief Medical Officer." She ran some device over Mikazuki's body, tempting him to attack her just to get her away from him, reminded too much of the doctors that put the Alina-Vinanja in his body.

"Attack me, young man, and I will break you in ways you cannot comprehend." Mikazuki's one good eye widened. How the fuck—?

"In a past life, I was a psychologist. I'm good at reading people. Suck it up and deal with it. You want to be useful outside the cockpit? Stay down, shut up and let me do my job."

"…past life?"

"I'm a Trill - in short, I have an alien in my gut that's several hundred years old that shares his experience with me." Rutia explained. "Just relax - this won't take long and you'll be back to 100%."

"Relax Mika," Orga said, "If they really wanted to harm us, they would've done it already." He still didn't see the point of it.

"Well, that's fucking convenient." Rutia muttered, looking at the scan, smiling. "Boss?"

" _I'm here_."

"Could you get Takeshi down here?"

" _They have a fix for his back? That's fucking convenient_."

"I know, that's what I said!" The MS pilot was getting annoyed. The less he spent around the doctor, the better off he was.

"Quite the opposite, Augus."

And how the fuck was she reading his mind?!

"Several hundred years of experience," She said. "Like I said, relax - this will only take a few minutes."

Now disturbed beyond belief, Mikazuki just shut up and let the evil doctor get on with the job.

* * *

"That was convenient."

"Yes, it is. But since when do I look gifthorses in the mouth?"

Takeshi glanced at Ron, who was pushing his chair through the halls. "Only after you remove any traps and make sure nothing can screw us over." His commanding officer cackled in amusement.

Takeshi was beginning to see the reason why everyone told him he was an idiot for not putting on a seatbelt on board the _Firestorm_ like the REST of his crew. He was so sure nothing would happen.

And now his spine was beyond fucked. Granted, they could fix it, but that was a poor concession.

As they entered sickbay, they heard Flay making a running commentary on the analysis of the Alaya-Vijnana System.

"-similar to the system we developed, though much more primitive. But going back to basics will make it easier for us to fix the problem." The redhead looked at the door, seeing her captain and XO. "Captain Yamato. Good news for you: we have a fix."

"Good to hear," Takeshi replied. "I've been wanting to get back to duty for _days_ now. Though, what is this fix?"

"It seems the locals developed their own version of the interface given to you," Flay explained. "They call it Alaya-Vijnana, and while it's much more primitive, this also means it's ironically more stable." She smiled. "Not only will you be back to normal, but you won't need any more 'booster shots'."

"Downsides?"

"None, after I modify it. I'll get it back to the original standards in a few months."

Ron took this opportunity to smack Takeshi upside the head. "This means no more lack of seatbelts."

"But it's less fun."

"Takeshi, the next time this happens, I will snap your neck to end your suffering, as you will do nothing but bitch and whine. So, to prevent that, use the fucking safety features!"

Takeshi had the nerve to pout before Ron fixed him with the Look.

The look of 'you think I'm joking, but you know I will do it'.

"Alright, fine," Takeshi replied. "So, what else do we know about this 'Alaya-Vijnana System'?"

"Well, according to Tekkadan, they've only been able to implant it in children."

"Makes sense: children are more pliable, unless you use Borg technology, which… doesn't care and adapts."

And how Ron was right: he was 30 when he was assimilated by the Borg and they cut into him with abandon. Still, this would fix most of Takeshi's problems. The rest were Rutia's problem.

"Get on the biobed: we'll get to work."

* * *

Orga Itsuka was a soldier. He expected to die young and unremembered. But that didn't stop him from doing everything in his power to ensure the survival of the others in Tekkadan, his family.

Starfleet tech gave Mika the right side of his body back. He could use Barbatos to its full capacity now without risking losing control of his limbs again now. If it could help Mika, it could help the others.

"So… you want me to do the same thing for the rest of your group, that Rutia did to your 'brother'?" Ron asked.

"Yes…" Orga said, "I know you said you don't trade with non-warp civilizations… but this is just to keep my friends, my… family a better chance of survival. So what happened to Mika won't happen to anyone else."

"I'll do you one better. I'll hire you."

"Wait… what?"

"I want to know what the hell's going on. So you provide me with intel, I give you what you want within reason. Because whether I like it or not, whether I want to or not, I'm going to be forced into solving your problems. So I might as well get it over with."

Orga glared at Ron. "Tekkadan does not hang back."

"Get fucking used to it. Some of your clients might decide to keep you back in reserve. Consider this practice."

Orga just sighed "Fine… Tekkadan will get your intel." He said. "Just let us know what you need to know."

"Troop movements, force deployments of Gjallarhorn. Any threats to Mars and by proxy us. And Mobile Suit specifications. Any and all. My girlfriend will want to see what you've got and make it better. If they're worth it."

Orga's glare got worse. He just insulted Barbatos and by proxy, Mikazuki.

"You make a habit to piss off your friends, don't you?"

"I make a habit to protect my crew. That means from everyone and everything. Besides, you should know better: I've got weapons that punch through your armor as though it weren't there. Do not make the mistake of going off half-cocked and souring an alliance that would secure your people's' survival against Gjallarhorn."

Orga's glare didn't falter, but he did nod. "Understood," he said. "I'll get you what info I can on that."

"There. Now, I'll be sending a team down to see just how bad your situation is."

* * *

Less than four hours and Takeshi was back on his feet.

And he felt better. So much better.

The injection of AV Nanites had done the trick, and he was back up to 100%. If not a little more than 100%.

"You look better."

"I haven't felt like this since my academy days." Takeshi commented, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Want me to call my brother to chase you through the halls, shooting at you with his compression rifle?" Takeshi looked at Luna in mock horror. Or actual horror.

Depends, really.

"Just because I feel like I did back then doesn't mean I want to relive those days, thank you very much," Takeshi told his wife bluntly.

"I know. Thought I'd ask. So, now what? Beyond you not breaking your back again."

"You're in the same boat as Ron, aren't you?"

"You were fucking stupid by not buckling in. Can you blame me?"

Takeshi sighed. "No, I guess not," he said. "Well, now I guess it's back to work, since I can actually do what I want to again."

"Walk?"

"Not just that. I can link up with anything with a synaptic interface. So I'm going to be practicing with the Tempest."

The main reason for this was, for the most part, jealousy. And all of it pointed at his commanding officer and his family.

Ron could pilot the Morgan like it was his own body. Riza's abilities with a starship's helm broke anything smaller than an _Excelsior_ -Class starship.

And let's not get _started_ on Ayame.

He wanted to at least be able to be able to fight on their own terms. To fight side-by-side as equals. It… It was something he'd always thought about.

He knew about the limiters in the nanites to keep him from being another Destroyer of Shuttles, and he was okay with that. But he still wanted to be at the same level as Ron.

" _All stations, yellow alert. Repeat, yellow alert: Gjallarhorn vessels detected. All stations, yellow alert_."

"Looks like we're going to be in combat."

* * *

This was his moment, Lord Kujan knew this as a fact as his fleet of _Halfbreak_ battleships moved towards the two colossal vessels over Mars. After defeating the Turbines, now he had the chance to capture the two largest ships humanity had ever seen, and all the technology they possessed. With those ships at their disposal, Gjallarhorn would become _unstoppable_.

The arrogant twit had no idea with whom he was screwing with. But let's recap for the sake of the readers.

A modified UNSC _Punic_ -Class supercarrier with the same enhancements, if slightly downgraded, as the UNSC _Infinity_ , armed to the teeth.

And an enhanced _Odyssey_ -Class superdreadnought whose captain was rather… merciless when it came to idiots shooting at his ship.

Oh, and the cloaked _fleet_ that could vaporise every molecule of his ship with their combined firepower.

"Let's give them a chance to surrender. Open a channel to the smaller of the two ships." The comms operator did so. "This is Commander Iok Kujan to the unknown vessels in Mars orbit. You are hereby ordered to stand down and prepare to be boarded."

" _This is Admiral Ronald Pinkerton of the_ Ra Cailum _: piss off, small fry. I don't have time for this._ "

"You are in Gjallarhorn-held space!" Kujan shouted, "You will surrender or you will be destroyed, this is your only warning!"

* * *

" _-This is your only warning!_ "

"Ronny, can I go out there and kick his ass?" Jade asked with a grin. "He seems… below you."

"I'm going to give him the customary 'last warning' before I sic you on them. And before I open fire." He cleared his throat as he stood up.

"Listen to this, you self-titled and self-important fucktard. I can destroy your ship with the flick of my wrist. You have _nothing_ on me. The _Ra Cailum_ is the most powerful starship in this star system. And I will use all the firepower I have to make you piss off forever if need be." Ron looked at Jade. "Launch your teams and kill their pilots: I want the machines intact. Leave the capital ships to us."

"Got it - bringing that Tekkadan Gundam pilot with me," She said turning to leave. "Gotta see what he's made of eventually, right?"

Ron waved her off as the heavy warships fired on the _Ra Cailum,_ the smoothbore rounds impacting the shields and doing nothing.

"Tempest has launched. Repeat, Tempest has launched."

"Wait a fuck, who the hell gave him permission to launch?" He looked back at Cassie. "Get the Tempest on the horn!"

* * *

Takeshi charged in, ready to see just what he could do. He was going to have a bit of fun with these idiots.

The interface was working wonderfully. It was allowing him to move faster than before.

But it wasn't fast enough, compared to Ron's movements with the Morgan.

He had to keep going. He wouldn't stop until he was able to fight alongside Ron as an equal.

" _Attention all pilots: I have some fitting music to play._ " Ron cleared his throat over the comm before beginning to sing.

But it was only one word set to the tune of Hall of the Mountain King, set on repeat.

Rape. Because that's what was going to happen. The hornblowers (as Gjallarhorn is the horn that signals the beginning of Ragnarok) were going to get fucked badly.

Takeshi grinned at that, as he drew his swords.

With MS-grade shields, not to mention a GN-Field if he needed it, he could certainly just go all slice-and-dice on these punks, and they wouldn't be able to do a thing.

All set to Ron singing Hall of the Mountain Rape.

The _Ra Cailum_ fired her phasers, a beam coring one of Kujan's escort ships and destroying it. The raw power of the superdreadnought was in full show.

And so were her mobile suits.

The 0 Gundam literally ripped off the head of a Graze and bashed into its torso segment, battering the mobile suit before moving on to the next target - firing off her beam rifle, easily scoring one-shot kills thanks to Ron's prior adaptation. Their units were dying in _droves_ against them. ' _Like sheep to the slaughter,_ ' she thought.

A burst of motion caught her attention, as she glanced and bore witness to the fighting of Mika in his Gundam - the Barbatos Lupus Rex. It mercilessly ripped apart a Graze unit using a wire-guided tail weapon, before using its dual maces to bludgeon to death another Graze.

The most amazing part though? The comms from him were _silent_. No pleads from Mika to tell his opponents to stop, to quit or surrender, no speeches about morality, philosophy or any of the other rants any other Gundam pilot she's watched throughout the known Gundam shows she watched while in the XCOM-verse… just a raw, one-man killing machine.

Like a professional soldier. A REAL soldier. He did his job and nothing more.

Ron was going to LOVE this kid! He was the antithesis of CB's self righteous hypocritical bullshit-spewers!

Child soldier or not, he was a real pilot, only reporting in when he NEEDED to for orders.

He wasn't Amuro Ray, suffering through his newtype bullshit. He wasn't Heero Yuy, who was… fucked up. To be honest, the After Colony timeline could be summed up with the words 'fucked up'. And he sure as fuck wasn't Kira Yamato, who left his targets ALIVE, in spite of knowing that they would be back to fight and try to kill his allies again and again.

Ironically, Mikazuki Argus was the true soldier pilot the Gundam metaseries had been missing since its' founding. Shame it had to be a child soldier, or 'Human Debris' as the term was.

Ron heard the term and wanted to shoot the moron that came up with it.

"Jade, how's the slaughter going?"

"Well, you know the saying Ron…" She giggled as she sliced a Graze in half down the middle. "Can't spell Slaughter without _Laughter_ , ehehehe!"

 _"And the kid?"_

"Silent as the grave! He's your type!"

 _"One: not gay. Two: not a pedophile."_

"Not what I meant and you know it," Jade rolled her eyes, "Sending you a video feed."

 _"I know. I'm just in the mood for jokes. I'm bored out of my MIND. And where's the idiot XO?"_

"Then why don't you hop into Morgan?" She asked, "It's not like the _Ra Cailum_ 's or the fleet's in any _actual_ danger." She grabbed another Graze by its legs, ripping them off. "It's more fun than just sitting on the bridge and watching!"

 _"I'm the last resort."_

"Oh right, because you—" She shoved a saber through the cockpit of another Graze. "Are a goddamn berserker!"

When it came to MS combat, Ron WAS the last person you wanted out there, as he would tear through the enemy, but also his allies, due to...issues with GN particle fields and his aggression inhibitor.

So he was the last resort.

But that didn't mean the others couldn't have fun.

Especially the Remnant natives and their machines.

A blur of red bisected a pair of hornblower MS, coming to a stop to reveal a rose red and black mobile suit. A massive scythe was cradled in its hands, and it's silver eyes glowed meanicanely. It's wings came up, massive thrusters came to life and propelled the Rosenda Gundam towards another Graze.

Screams of terror were heard as they screamed, rather annoyingly, 'it's a Gundam!'.

As much as it amused, it also annoyed.

"Fall back, FALL BACK!" Kujan's battleship turned, firing her engines at full power to flee from the battlefield.

One of the escorts was phasered to death, but the rest were allowed to flee.

* * *

Kujan was an idiot, but he wasn't THAT fucking stupid.

He was a fool, but he saw raw power and knew to fear.

And knew he needed more reinforcements.

Unfortunately, thanks to the Hashmal incident, his power base in Gjallarhorn was considerably weakened. As such, he had only one place he could turn to for help.

Jasley Donomikols of Teiwaz.

Although if Kujan couldn't do anything, what hope did Teiwaz have? They were outnumbered by Gjallarhorn and had less advanced technology compared.

He was fucked.

* * *

The continual rape to the egos of the Sol System's nominal rulers was about to get worse.

 _Much_ worse, as Jade, after recovering the Barbatos (Ron never used the Gundam prefix, always using the other half of the name for some reason, probably speed) was working on giving it a GN drive.

Starfleet didn't need a Jovian planet to make the damn things, much to Jade's joy.

She was also getting a close-up look at the machine-side of the Alaya-Vijnana Man-Machine Interface System. If only to find out just what made the thing tick.

It was rather unusual, but at the same time par for the course. Unusual in that this universe was way more advanced than her universe, possibly on par with Starfleet, in some respects, and yet absolutely primitive in others. Par for the course in that irregularities like that seemed to be the bread-and-butter of this trip.

That being said, they were nowhere near the level of anyone in their Milky Way outside the limited areas of medicine and even the Alaya Vijnana was worthless compared to Borg interface technology.

So, they were going to have to defend these idiots (Ron's words, but not inaccurate) after all.

Still, if nothing else it was a chance to learn new techniques - even the most primitive technologies could provide new insight to improving more modern technology. Such as the nano-laminate armor. Sure, they could adapt the weapons to counteract its properties, but they could also modify it to improve their own armor.

That would take some work, however. That, thankfully, was where Barbatos came in.

She had removed some of the armor for analysis, much to Mikazuki's annoyance, but when Ron came in and gave him a look, he kept his mouth shut.

He had learned the one rule of the multiverse: don't fuck with Ron.

Gjallarhorn was about to learn the same lesson.

* * *

 **Takeshi Yamato: So, not only is Takeshi back to normal, but so is Mika. By the way, show of hands, who felt Tekkadan got the shaft in IBO canon?**

 **Ron the True Fan: At least it shifted. Who is tired of seeing Gundam protagonists survive all the shit they run into? Apparently Sunrise, as they killed off ALMOST ALL OF THEM in IBO. Not a problem for me: it's about time.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: OK, point taken. Still, expect things to go a fair bit differently this time around, with the exception of one thing. (takes a katana and slices a cardboard cutout of Iok Kujan into tiny little pieces.)**

 **Ruby: Someone hates him.**

 **Weiss: He was as incompetent as they come. Death is a blessing for that retard.**

 **Ron the True Fan: And genetic cleansing begins.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: *starts up Lancer chainsaw* And we are it's harbingers. Hehehehe.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	64. Chapter 64

**Airspace outside USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

The battle had ended a while back, but Takeshi was still out in the Tempest, working on getting as much performance out of the machine as he could.

And not listening to orders to come back.

Takeshi's urge to improve was futile, not that he really understood this: upgraded nervous system or not, he was still human.

Ayame and her children were not: Nietzscheans had all of their genetic flaws (from astigmatism to any number of flaws that would reduce their ability to survive) edited out by Peter Museveni, not to mention their ability to survive with only one half of their brain, as Ron demonstrated and Heavy Worlders were on par with them in terms of endurance, strength and agility.

That wasn't counting the Borg enhancements, which CONTINUED to improve due to a flaw Ron accidentally introduced into the system.

Takeshi, meanwhile, was… just human.

Logic didn't really apply to a man as determined as he was, though, as he kept pushing himself harder and harder.

If this was Gurren Lagann, he'd be alright, because he'd likely be generating Spiral Power in large quantities, and his body would likely improve in response. However, this was not Gurren Lagann.

If it WERE, Ron would be finding ways to kill the idiots on both sides of the conflict as the series makes no fucking sense.

As far as reality is concerned, Takeshi wasn't seeing any real improvement, made worse by staying out there for over 8 hours doing nothing but practice, draining his mental and physical reserves.

For fuck's sake, he wasn't a post-Borgification Ron.

He had a goal, though, and he wouldn't stop until he reached it.

Or died in the process.

Latter was more likely.

* * *

The comm beeped as Ron looked up from his PADD, clutching it to his chest to hide the fact that he was playing Pac-Man rather than doing his paperwork.

" _Boss, your XO is trying to kill himself._ "

"I noticed. I'm going to let the next near-death experience be his lesson."

" _He might not get the chance, boss,_ " Rutia replied. " _He's trying to force up the sync rate on his synaptic interface._ "

"Close enough. Cassie, access the recall feature on the Tempest and get him back here. We don't have time for this shit."

" _I would, but it's disabled._ " Cassie said, " _I think Takeshi knew you'd might try and pull something like that…_ "

"You want me to go out there and grab him?" Jade asked.

"No. I'll do it. Prep the Morgan for launch and tell sickbay to stand by."

"Ron, you can't be serious."

"I am. And tell her to be ready to operate."

"'Operate'?!"

"Follow my orders." Ron got out of the chair and went for the transporter in the back of the bridge.

* * *

Takeshi keyed in another simulation program into the Tempest, readying himself. The words 'SIMULATION START' flashed across his screen, and five GNXs appeared on his sensors, heading towards him.

Take gunned his engines, racing towards the enemy mobile suits, opening fire with his GN Sword's gun mode. One Jinx lost an arm and leg to Take's fire before they started returning fire.

The captain weaved through the beams with almost contemptuous ease, covering his approach with a spray of beams.

As he got close, he switched over to sword mode, slicing through them with ease.

' _Good,_ ' he thought. ' _It's working better. Still-_ ' A brief coughing fit took him, and when he finished, there were some flecks of blood on his helmet visor. ' _Still got a long way to go, though._ '

" _Would you mind explaining WHY you're trying to kill yourself in a training exercise, Captain Yamato?_ " Takeshi made note of two things: one, Ron was on the comm and two, he used his rank and surname.

He didn't do that unless they had fucked up.

"I need to get better performance out of this thing," Takeshi replied, annoyed. "I know getting up to the same level as you will probably take a long time, but if I can just get up to a 50% sync rating on the interface, that'll be enough for now."

" _And kill yourself in the process? I think not. Get back to the_ Ra Cailum _BEFORE I override your controls_."

Takeshi growled. "You're always giving me orders. Practically bullying your way to your end goal."

" _I'm DOING MY JOB_." Before Takeshi could angrily retort, their sensors went off as a contact appeared on their scopes. "NOW what?"

A _MASSIVE_ energy reading was approaching, seeming to be contained in a large rock. No lifesigns, but a whole lot of power behind it.

"A mobile base?"

"Oh, there's a mobile in there. And it's an Armor." Takeshi could practically HEAR the grin in Ron's voice. It was murder-time fun-time as far as he was concerned.

" _I'll provide long-range bombardment. Have fun hacking that thing apart._ "

"THANK YOU!" Takeshi replied, before charging at the rock. He readied his weapon, still in sword mode - normally he'd use the gun mode as he closed in, but he seriously needed to just _vent_ right now.

And since this thing provided a handy target, he'd do just that. It was time to start killing something as hard to kill as Ron was.

And killing something as hard to kill as Ron was something to be proud of as the mobile armor shook itself free of the rock. It was like the one Mikazuki killed, only with additional missile pods on the back. Takeshi was going to kill it. And he was going to kill it as mercilessly as he could. He needed to vent and this thing was a great target.

With the Morgan hanging back, Takeshi was the only thing getting in close.

He swiftly closed in, dodging around a few missile volleys the thing sent his way, before slicing off one of its 'wings' with his sword, then spinning away as the tail swept at where he was, before cutting the tip off of that, too. The other 'wing' soon followed.

He was mad. VERY mad. Five years of working under Ron, under that ex-Borg bastard who continued to improve, continued to excel, continued to be BETTER than he was.

And he HATED it. He hated it so much that he had to do something about it. The Mobile Armor, which the IFF called a 'Ishim', fired its' plasma beam cannon, like a bird spitting out a stream of water. That just made Takeshi more mad.

And while he didn't have Ron's Button, he was still mad enough to get in closer to kill the bastard.

As Takeshi dodged the beam and charged again, Ron watched. Takeshi was definitely doing very well, but his movements were… unusual. They were the movements of someone who was throwing caution to the wind, who would charge in and attempt to kill the strongest thing they could, just to prove their own strength.

It was, as Ron realized with a bit of shock, almost akin to looking in a mirror.

The only problem was that Takeshi, enhanced or not, was just human. Ron was… not. He was Borg. He couldn't see what Takeshi saw as a great challenger as a challenge at all. And it made him yearn for the days before his assimilation.

Takeshi, at the same time, saw the same issue. Ron had to seek bigger and badder things to kill because of his Borg enhancements. They couldn't face the same things. But they wanted to.

And as Takeshi finished up by carving what was left of the Ishim in two, he was able to look at what he'd been doing much more calmly than he had before.

And he'd been behaving like a total idiot.

Ron was an asshole, but that didn't mean he had a superiority complex. He just didn't consider what Takeshi considered a challenge even worth considering thanks to his enhancements by the Borg. But he didn't want that. He wanted to be back to what he was.

But Ron could never be what he used to be. And Takeshi could never really reach Ron's level. Neither wanted to be on unequal terms.

" _…Your machine needs tuning, you know that, right?"_

"Huh?" Takeshi asked, having been brought out of his musings by Ron's abrupt question.

"You were never mechanically inclined. Instinct will only get you so far. The way you've got that thing is going to fry your nervous system." That was true: Takeshi was more sword-inclined then he was at engineering. That was always Ron's territory.

…Among other things. On that same coin, Takeshi DID get his girlfriend and wife first.

And nearly killed at the Academy for it.

"Right," he replied, smiling slightly. "And… sorry about, well… what I was doing earlier, I guess."

 _"Let's get a move on. We have better things to do, like, oh,_ getting the fleet home _? I'll handle the tuning when we get back to the ship_."

"Got it," Takeshi replied, turning the Tempest back towards the _Ra Cailum_.

He'd likely have to apologize to Luna, as well, for more than likely making her worry, after he got back…

But that would be alright.

At least he'd finally managed to 'deal with' his major issues regarding Ron.

* * *

The other issues were external.

Mostly involving Tekkadan and the… special soldiers.

The UNSC's best idiots were stuck with the _Ra Cailum_ , only tolerated because Ron preferred results over everything. He didn't give one damn about their personalities so long as they got the job done. It is why everyone in Starfleet didn't like him: he recruited whoever he liked.

"This is bullshit."

"You're just angry because there's no women, Tucker."

"Correction: there are two, and they're under my limit."

"What, you have a… fuck it, nevermind… "

"What about that blonde? The taller woman? She looks… she kicked you in the balls didn't she?"

"I am wearing power armor! How is that even physically possible?!"

Caboose looked at Church. "Capain Pinkie-ton did it."

"That bastard's stronger than WE are WITHOUT THE ARMOR! He cheats!"

"Yes, he does, but he is awesome when he does it! He put things in my brain and tried to make me smarter." Tucker and Church shared a glance. They weren't sure if that the Caboose being delusional, or if he actually did it.

Then again, the Borg bastard was known to do worse...

"Dude, it is a COMPLETE and total sausage party down here. And I hate it."

Across the way were another group of morons.

The Reds.

Orga was trying to comprehend the insanity. He really was. But…

"See? There! That's a fucking Puma!"

"Are you sure? Looks like a stuffed animal..."

"It's a real fucking animal!"

"How do you look at the Warthog, and come up with _that_ Grif?"

"I don't know, it just does Simmons!"

"At least a Warthog has tusks. What does that kitty have?"

"Oh Kitties? Where?"

"DONUT SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

HOW? HOW did Pinkerton put up with their INSANITY?! Five of his people were already in hospital thanks to watching and listening to them!

That didn't make sense!

"So. These are the new guys." Orga found his island of sanity in a sea of madness as Mikazuki walked over to his side. Yes, walked. Starfleet medical technology was superior to theirs, so Mika finally had full functionality of his limbs again.

They DID take a few notes in some areas, but they were 'explorers', whatever that meant.

"Yes… " Orga sighed, shaking his head. "Just… stay away from them Mika… I don't want the insanity spreading..."

"Should I kill them?"

"I'm beginning to wonder if that's physically possible, Mika..."

"Like with Pinkerton?" Mikazuki had been given one chance to kill him.

He shot him with a 200mm shell and slammed the mace on him. Ron was battered, but alive. He then proceeded to disable Barbatos.

Mikazuki was not known to show fear, but he would be the first to admit Ron scared the fuck out of him.

"Yes. Because anyone with him can't be killed."

"We're on fucking MARS! How is there corn?!"

He couldn't take it.

"I'm going to _Ra Cailum_ and talking with Pinkerton. As insane as he is, at least he holds it back!"

* * *

 **USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

"So, there's a Gjallarhorn ship inbound. Can I just shoot it?"

The _Ra Cailum_ crew had been insulted by the nepotism of the organization and wanted to burn it.

The only thing holding them back was the Prime Directive.

"Unfortunately, I don't think we can in this instance," the science officer reported. "The ship's broadcasting a white flag code. Looks like someone over there has a brain at least."

Ron entered the bridge from his ready room. "Another idiot challenges the _Ra Cailum_?"

"Nope. They want to talk."

He groaned. "And here I thought I wouldn't be doing this. On screen."

The screen activated, showing a man in the Gjallarhorn uniform with blonde hair and blue eyes, looking very much like your typical commander. "Ra Cailum _, I am McGillis Fareed._ "

"Captain Ronald Pinkerton. What the hell do you want?"

" _I wish to apologize for the actions of one Iok Kujan,_ " McGillis stated. " _He has always been a fool, who acts before he thinks, and his actions do not speak for Gjallarhorn as a whole. I wish to speak with you in person, Captain, to see if we can come to a… mutually beneficial arrangement._ "

"Prepare a shuttle. I'll hear you out, but make no promises. And if you think that you can use me and my ship to win your war, I _will_ shove you out an airlock."

McGillis smiled. " _I will be on board momentarily._ " The link was cut.

"Keep a phaser lock on his ship. If he does anything untoward, shoot it."

"Someone's pissed."

"I nearly had to fight my XO. That'll piss off anyone."

No one needed a reminder of the _Equinox_ Incident.

"I'll be in the ready room. TRYING to get drunk."

"Your liver's got enhanced filters. You CAN'T get drunk."

"WATCH me."

Ron walked back into his ready room.

* * *

McGillis Fareed was impressed with the massive starship. Over one thousand meters long, armed almost solely with energy weapons and superior defensive systems, the _Ra Cailum_ spoke of one thing: power.

Domination, overwhelming power...he wanted that ship under his control. Sadly, it appeared Captain Pinkerton had no interest in being controlled.

That would change.

Pffft, yeah right.

Anyways, as his shuttle entered the dreadnought's massive hangar bay, McGillis took in the sight of the large amount of what looked like large fighters.

 _'Pity. I was hoping to get a closer look at their MS…'_ They must keep them in another hangar or ship.

Still, he had to talk to Captain Pinkerton, get his allegiance. With that sort of power, he could take Gjallarhorn with ease. The craft set down, allowing him to exit through the hatch. Meeting him were two officers wearing the same black and grey uniforms he saw Pinkerton wear and holding strange rifles. No magazine could be seen on them, so they had to be energy weapons.

"Is this the typical welcoming committee?"

"Only for warlords. The Captain's not a fan of dealing with people that want his ship for their own ends. He's in his ready room. Trying to get drunk. Again."

McGillis raised his eyebrow at that, but didn't comment further. The rest of the trip was uneventful, aside from taking in the aliens among the crew.

They arrived on the bridge, and the two took him directly to a door on the side. "Captain's just inside."

McGillis opened the door by pressing a button, finding a room that, besides a massive fish tank, was rather spartan. And at the desk was the captain, downing a full bottle of alcohol of some kind.

"Klingons. They're smelly bastards, but they make wood alcohol look tame." He looked at McGillis. "Get in here and sit down."

The man suddenly found himself in the chair before he realised it. "Wait, what just-"

Ron raised an amused eyebrow. "I have that effect on people, whether they realize it or not." He took another gulp from the bottle. "Now, what do you want? And if I look like I don't care, it means I don't."

"You ARE an asshole."

"What was your first guess? The fact that I don't give a shit about form and appearance or that my crew is better at doing their jobs then being diplomatic? Now, out with it."

"I wanted to apologize for—"

"Kujan is not under your command and you're on opposite sides of this conflict." Ron waved off the apology. "I am not a fan of being buttered. Be plain or piss off." McGillis frowned. He had no way of tip-toeing around Ron and to manipulate him into doing what he wanted if he was blunt.

"Gjallarhorn is corrupt, filled with idiots who are drunk on power or are too busy worshiping Rustal Elion that they do whatever they want to get what they want. I'm working to change that, but I can't do that with just my resources."

"So you come to me and Tekkadan."

"You both have power. More than anyone else, in your case."

"The only reason I shot at the dumbass was because I have a rule: shoot me, you die. If they continue to throw themselves at us, I'll keep blowing them up. As for everything else, I'm following the Prime Directive: non-interference."

"But you're helping Tekkadan."

"That's basic medical stuff that I'd be happy to give. Besides, we're not helping them, I've _hired_ them. I can't do anything, but that doesn't mean others _can't._ "

McGillis raised an eyebrow. "'Others'?"

"This is a coalition. I'm simply in command of the most powerful ship and everyone generally follows my orders because I know what I'm doing. That doesn't mean I have absolute authority over everyone in this fleet: just over all Starfleet personnel. Anyone wants to help, they're free to."

McGillis hid his grin, but Ron saw it. "No. You're not manipulating them to do your bidding. You will not receive military assistance from us. You try that and I will _mindfuck_ you."

The Fareed leader leaned back in his chair, eyes wide. The way the captain had said it garnered no doubt that he could and _would_ follow up on that promise.

McGillis cleared his throat and regained his posture.

"I will have you know that I have hired Tekkadan, Captain. Their services are mine." Ron narrowed his eyes. "In essence, sir, I will be getting your aid."

"Like hell."

"Through assisting them, you are assisting me, Captain." McGillis smiled.

Ron scowled. "Tekkadan is not receiving technical aid. Medical, yes. But they are receiving no technological assistance."

McGillis was grasping for something here. Something to give him the edge he needed, but the captain wasn't taking any shit at all. "Could I buy assistance?"

"From me? No. You've got nothing I need. The others… maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Like I said, you have nothing I want or need. Which begs the question… what do you have that they want? Answer that and you may get help." He tossed him a PADD. "Contact information for the higher-ups in the fleet. Now get the hell off my ship."

"I would say it's a pleasure, but…"

"Just get out and do your scheming elsewhere." Ron ordered as he popped another bottle open.

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: …Anyone else want to shoot him?**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Of all the people on my list that need to get shot in this universe… he ranks low-ish. Scheming bastard he is, there are bigger fish to fry.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yeah. He's also the truest Char Clone of the Gundam Franchise, I believe, and scheming asshole or not… I can't help but _respect_ him, even if cheering for him is tough.**

 **117Jorn: He doesn't even make it _on_ my list of people to shoot. Scheming Asshole he might be, maybe even a bit of a backstabber (see Carta Issue), but you can sympathize with the shit he's been through… and he gets extra credit for NOT wanting to make use of Colony drops or Weapons of Mass Destruction to achieve his goals. **

**Takeshi Yamato: Good point there. So yeah, it's hard to root for the guy, but you do have to _respect_ him. Iok Frakking Kujan, on the other hand…**

 **Ron the True Fan: Shoot them both. Iok first. (Loads C96) Let's get to the shooting. (Beep) Oh, look, update to _Star Trek On...line_...(Screams in rage) KILL! MURDER! EXTERMINATE!**

 **Ruby: What the hell was that?!**

 **Weiss: _Star Trek Discovery_ , that's what.**

 **Blake: ...That explains why he's going nuclear. (BOOM!) And making OTHERS go nuclear, too...**

 **Ja Ne!**


	65. Chapter 65

**USS _Ra Cailum_ \- main shuttlebay**

* * *

A single Type-15 shuttlepod went up and down in motions as Rutia entered the bay, escorted by her boyfriend, Jorge. "Huh. Didn't know he could lift a shuttle."

"He can lift a _Danube_ -Class runabout if he wanted to. I'd know: I've seen him do it." The CMO approached the shuttle, finding her commanding officer under the smallest of Starfleet's shuttles. (Work Bees and inspection pods not counting because they were designed for short-range ferrying or inspections)

"What the hell were you thinking?"

Ron paused in his lifting to look at the Trill. "Oh, hoi, Rutia. I know you hate it when I lift the bigger shuttles—"

"I'm talking about with Captain Yamato!" Rutia yelled in response. "Yes, I know how it turned out, but if that Mobile Armor hadn't shown up, the two of you could have damn near killed each other!"

"More like Takeshi would be fine, I'd be in major surgery."

"You… You son of a bitch, you would've let him nearly kill you?! You are not invulnerable!"

"Maybe not, but if I had to get hacked in half to prove a point, so be it." He placed his feet on the shuttle, using all of his strength to lift the craft. "Besides, it saved his life, didn't it?"

"That's beside the point!"

Ron shoved the shuttlepod off of him and jumped to his feet. "And what IS the point, Doctor?!"

"The point, _Admiral_ , is that you are too damn reckless!" Rutia yelled. "I can't even blame this on your Nietzschean genetics - this was just near-suicidal idiocy!"

Ron scoffed. "Maybe you haven't considered that may I DO want to die. Rutia, I am not human anymore. I'm going to outlive everyone on this ship, save maybe Cassie. I'll even outlive your damned symbiote. And as a Trill symbiote can live for up to 5000 years, that's saying something. Humans can live up to 150 years now, suffering from god knows what. Think about that. Would you want to keep living, knowing that you'll forget your loved ones? Besides, if Takeshi killed me, you could all live without. Starfleet Command would be happier to see me dead."

"Don't make me get your mother and your girls to show you how wrong you are, because they _will._ They will beat that stupid thought out of your head and make sure it _stays out._ "

Ron was unfazed. Then again, with his perfect Borg control, he could be panicking and no one would know.

"You know that my mother wouldn't bother."

"You're worse than she is, I know."

"At least I'm not on the other end of Luna's yelling."

* * *

"YOU FUCKING IDIOT! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! IF YOU AND RON GOT INTO A FIGHT IN THOSE DAMNED MACHINES, ONE OF YOU OR BOTH OF YOU COULD BE DEAD! Do you know how important you BOTH are to this fleet?!"

"I know, I know," Takeshi replied tiredly. His wife had definitely picked up the Pinkerton temper, that was for sure. "I wasn't thinking straight. I was just… I wanted to fight alongside Ron as an equal, and even though I've got that synaptic interface, along with had the nanites S31 put in me stabilized and upgraded, I'd forgotten that it's not possible. I screwed up, and I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't cut it! You would have left me a widow, your children without a father and they wouldn't've had an uncle they could look up to! And don't get me STARTED on Starfleet Command! Jellico hates you two, but the rest of Command doesn't! The President would've ordered us to go back in time, stop you both and THEN tan your hides! God FUCKING damn it!"

Luna did not show her Pinkerton influence often, but when she got MAD, she cursed as much as Ron did. "Just tell me that you're not going to do something so fucking DUMB ever again! My brother I can understand, he WANTS to die. You are another story!"

Takeshi looked at his wife. "Wait… WHAT?"

"Oh, please, I know him better than you do. He's never been comfortable with being a liberated Borg. He wants to be human again, but that's never going to happen. So he's been trying to find ways to get himself killed in the most glorious way possible. But you? You don't have anything to prove!"

Takeshi leaned back, stunned. So all Ron wanted was to go out with a bang? That was why he searched for harder and harder battles, to make sure he left his mark on the world in the most glorious and badass way possible?

It was very Klingon. Granted, he studied xenopsychology to the point where his personality took elements of every society he studied into himself: Klingon honor, Romulan pride and so on.

And now since he could not be 'normal', he wanted to die while inspiring his people.

"I guess I understand him a bit better now," Takeshi admitted. "But yes, Luna, I promise. I won't do anything that might leave you alone."

Luna was half-tempted to shoot him in the foot as punishment. But they had better things to do.

"Jade's got her work cut out for her."

* * *

Ron was going to be on the other end of a verbal assault from Jade and he _knew_ it.

So he simply sat there.

Waiting.

—admittedly, he did _not_ expect her to bash the doors open, wielding a massive chaingun, targeting Ron. "YOU FUCKING IDIOT!" She shouted, as the barrels began to whirl.

"JESUS!"

 ** _RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA_**

"DON'T YOU FUCKING DO THAT!" She screamed, even as she continued to fire at Ron. "I FINALLY GET USED TO BEING A GIRL AND ADMIT I FUCKING LOVE YOU, AND YOU GO OUT AND NEARLY GET YOURSELF KILLED BY FUCKING TAKE?! YOU ARE NOT FUCKING DYING THAT EASY YOU NIMWIT!"

"…This reminds me of what happened with my father before he died. WHY are you acting like my mother?"

Jade lowered the minigun before noticing something. Something… crawling up her back.

It settled on top of her head before she looked at the reflective surface of the fishtank. It was HUGE, the size of her fist, with huge googly eyes, covered in hair and was brightly colored.

It was some kind of spider.

"Ron… what is that?"

"One of my genetically engineered peacock spiders. Australia: everything there wants to murder you, but those things are harmless."

The spider jumped off of her head before raising its' legs, moving around.

…It was DANCING.

Jade just blinked looking at the little spider dance… and dropped the minigun. "Awww, its so cuuuute!" She cooed, petting the little spider. "Why didn't you tell me you had these little guys here before?"

"They're shy. They like to hide. I guess he got curious." The googly-eyed spider raised his abdomen, spreading the colorful fan.

And Jade suddenly understood the reason for the name 'peacock spider'.

"I feel dead."

"Takeshi nearly killed you! If it weren't for that Mobile Armor—"

"Jade, I'm so fucked up I want to dump myself into a star just to avoid living with the thought of all my friends and family dying and there was nothing I could do to stop it. But I don't want to die just dumping myself into some random star. I want to… inspire people to be better."

Jade looked at Ron for a moment, sighing as she placed the spider on her shoulder. "Ron… " she began. "You _already_ inspire people to do better. People look up to you, see you as more than just a CO or Friend… I've only been with you for a few years and… I can't imagine what my life'd be like without you, Sonja or Cassie."

"Are we gonna die?" She asked shrugging, "Sure… everyone dies eventually, but… what's important isn't always in the future Ron… it's the moments we share here, in the present. Because moments like these make memories that will live past lifetimes…" She then smiled, chuckling a bit. "Sides… who knows? Maybe we all somehow do become immortal like you, and we can spend the rest of eternity jumping universes and fucking the shit up of anyone we meet. If there's anyone who'd be willing to do that for you, Ron… it's all of us. "

Ron simply sat in the chair.

"I'd listen to her." Jade glanced at the entrance, seeing Veronica. "So… Peacock spiders?"

"Giant googly eyes, bright colors, absolutely harmless to humans and they dance. What's not to love?"

"Well, they eat their mates if they don't approve—"

"Not these ones. That guy's a proud three times over father. I edited the whole cannibal thing out: unless they're starving, they don't attack one another. And I provide them with prey." The spider continued to dance, knowing it was cute.

"Well, I had a collection of my own back home. They were—smaller. These things are 300 times the size." Jade looked at the spider, which stopped dancing.

"300 times?"

Veronica looked at the spider. "300 times the mass: these guys are light and tiny. Fangs can't even punch through our skin." The younger Pinkerton sibling looked at her brother. "So, I've had three requests for assistance from Fareed. I presume I can tell him to go fuck himself."

"If you so wish. The UNSC is following your lead on this as well: I think they know better now."

The second of the two Pinkerton sisters looked at her sister-in-law. "What about you?"

"I'm helping Tekkadan by improving their Mobile suits and the weaponry on their ships. I've been working to see if I can sync an Ahab reactor with a GN drive, see if it produces better performance like the Twin Drive." She rested a hand on Ron's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll do it far from the _Ra Calium_ so you won't get homicidal tendencies."

"Not far enough. Go back down there and get to work. Don't give them anything I wouldn't."

"So, nothing Starfleet that they can use to get themselves nuked or blow up a sun?"

Ron huffed in amusement. "Get going. I have to get my door fixed." Jade smiled without guilt.

* * *

Orga continued to try and not go mad.

Try. These UNSC people were making him fail. The sheer INSANITY was mindboggling.

"Alright Blues!" The red one with the omnipresent shotgun shouted. "Come out with your hands up so I can full you with shotgun!"

"What?! No!" A sniper shot went _wide_ and by wide, we mean the other direction, that's how bad the shot was.

"You suck Church!"

"Shut up, Tucker."

Orga tried to ignore them. But it was impossible. They were making life impossible. The Mobile Workers were all destroyed, most of their mobile suits were now inoperable—

And they hadn't even gone NEAR the damn things!

He could think of only one way to turn this around. Next time Gjallarhorn showed up, he'd send in these guys.

And sit back and watch the fireworks.

"Grif! Go over there and get their flag!"

"What? No! You just want me to die!"

"What? Nonsense! I just hope you stop breathing!"

Whatever the hell they were talking about, they were driving his people MAD.

And that Jade Takeo person was not making it any easier: Mika was missing. And he KNEW she was responsible for him being gone.

He was right. Jade was responsible. Just not in the way he thought.

* * *

"—you like Mika, don't you?"

Atra Mixta blushed furiously "I… I um, it's… it's—"

"Girl, trust me - I know the feeling." Jade said with a short chuckle. "You love him, he's just too thick-skulled to either admit it himself, or even realize it. Am I right?" Atra gulped. "I thoughts so."

"Well, I—well, there's also Kudelia—"

"She's interested, but she was friend-zoned a LONG time ago. I can see it." In truth, Ron had told her that after a few minutes of interaction between her and Mikazuki. He might've felt depressed about his life, but he was DAMN good at his job.

"Oh."

Jade smiled at the young girl. "It's ok, Atra. I'll give you a hand. Well, me and Ron."

"NO! I don't want HIS help!" She saw him and was fucking terrified of him after fifteen minutes. Jade could not blame her: if it weren't for her attraction to insanity, she'd be scared of him.

"Don't worry, he can keep his sanity in check for a bit of… matchmaking." Jade said with a light giggle, causing Atra to gulp slightly. "Just relax… by the end of our work, you and Mika'll be near _inseparable_ …"

"—Really?"

"While he is scary, Ron's a romantic. And he's a psychologist, so he can tell you how and what Mika's gonna do."

* * *

In orbit, Ron was busy doing two things: replacing the door Jade destroyed and watching the slugging match between Fareed and Rastal. Which was going to drag them in sooner or later.

"Whoever shoots at us, they get a phaser to the face, you know that?"

"Oh hell yes." Corpsa laughed. "If a stray cannon round from somewhere in the system hits us, that ship will be dead before it knows what it did wrong."

"Good."

The horn-blowers (Gjallarhorn being the horn whose blowing signaled Ragnarok's coming) were going to drag them into their fighting. And Ron saw it from the tactical readouts: McGillis was trying to steer his enemies into shooting at the _Ra Cailum._

The son of a bitch read Ron well. A difficult thing to do, but he read him: he knew the captain of the superdreadnought would not join the fighting until someone fired at him.

So he was trying to make his enemies fire on the _Ra Cailum_.

"Riza, put Mars between us and the firefight, then cloak us. I've had enough of this shit."

"Copy that."

"Hey, call from Jade." Cassie called out. "She's asking for you."

"Put her on."

His girlfriend appeared on the big screen, a glint in her eye. "You're up to something, aren't you, Jade?"

" _Heya Ronny! Say… how'd you feel about doing a bit of matchmaking?_ " She asked.

"I'm a romantic: is that even a question? Who needs matching up and how can I help?"

Jade giggled. " _Our favorite MS pilot and his would be girlfriend. He's blind as a bat_."

"Bats aren't blind."

" _It's a figure of speech and you know it._ "

"It's also literal. Maybe he's got feelings for her and has no clue how to show it."

" _Well then, we need to fix that. There's a lot of matchmaking to be done, and I'll need your help."_

"I'll see what I can do—"

"Sir, I've got a troop transport on long-range sensors. It's en route to the Tekkadan base." Ron was not amused. Jade openly gave the PMC GN technology and other improvements.

And because attacking the _Ra Cailum_ was suicide and they knew it, they decided to go after Tekkadan, which was openly advertising their new 'gifts'. Orga Itsuka was a prideful idiot and this proved it.

"You hear that Jade?"

" _Oh hell yes. I'm raising the alarm now. No need to come down, we got this."_

"Ron, the transport is sporting a Kujan family crest."

Ron cackled. "The idiot doesn't know when to stay away. Jade, kill him this time."

 _"With_ pleasure."

The link cut out. "Take's annoyed with the asshole, too. Send him down there: whoever kills him first gets a cookie." And he wasn't joking when he said that.

When he said people killed for his cookies, he did not kid.

They were damned good cookies.

* * *

Takeshi was still slightly jealous of Ron's ability to sync with technology, but he had to admit, he tuned the Tempest to damn near perfection.

Which was pretty much the point of the Borg, wasn't it?

And it was behaving very nicely as it made its way down into the atmosphere, heading for Tekkadan's base.

Iok Kujan was a hotheaded, moronic asshole. And had screwed things up more times than anyone who had been around cared to count.

He was going to die _today_.

Takeshi considered Iok an idiot that needed to die. Ron hated incompetence to the point of taking a chainsaw to it and it rubbed off on everyone: Takeshi would've simply hacked off Iok's limbs and cut out his tongue before joining Ron's crew.

Now? Now he wanted to kill the dumb fuck as slowly and painfully as practically possible.

And Ron was giving him the order to do just that. And bribing him with his cookies, no less.

This meant Ron _really_ wanted the guy dead. And Takeshi intended to deliver, even as he picked up the base on his scopes.

So, it was murder time as he approached the base, finding a large number of Gjallarhorn MS just waiting to attack.

They were freaking pathetic, more style than substance. Even the Gundam-Class machine he was piloting was practical, having nothing absolutely unnecessary. Those things had unnecessary embellishments on their armor. No wonder Ron felt murderous: this universe was filled with prima donnas!

Time to cleanse the gene pool a bit.

They didn't even see him coming, so he didn't bother with the gun mode—the first evidence they knew he was there was when he landed in their midst and did a perfect 360 with sword extended, slicing several Gjallarhorn MS right through their cockpits in one strike. And the carnage only grew worse from there.

That reason being the white Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex. Takeshi had no idea what the latter two words meant at first (he didn't know Latin, but Ron and Luna did, as Ron used to call her 'water girl' for a reason) but when he was told it meant 'Wolf King', it fit as its' pilot stalked the battlefield, smashing the living shit out of the enemy.

Silently. He wasn't yelling, he wasn't talking except to tell people to get out of his way and that in and of itself was rare. Ron was going to like this: he hated pilots that talked instead of doing their job.

"Hello boys!" The 0 Gundam Mk-2 jumped on top of a Graze, crushing underneath it. It's two companions backpedaled, firing into the Gundam's face, but the rounds only bounced off the shields. The 0 slowly stood and started walking towards them. "You've been bad…"

The hornblowers had no idea how dead they were.

But they were about to find out. Jade was not Mikazuki, but she was just as dangerous. And looking at a Gundam-Class machine was enough to make them shit their pants.

Well, all but a few. Julieta Juris did not fear this new Gundam (mistake) and Iok Kujan was too stupid to know fear until it was too late.

And Takeshi was making a beeline straight for Iok, carving up anything Gjallarhorn in his way.

Stupid is as stupid dies, as Ron would put it. And Iok was about to die.

And as Takeshi turned on the jammers, Iok would die screaming in silence. After all, who would want to hear the bastard's death screams?

He proceeded to slice the arms and legs off of Iok's machine, before slicing the torso into a bunch of tiny pieces.

He kept hacking at it, the 200mm shells plinking off the GN-enhanced armor. He ignored them: he had better things to do, like make sure Iok was well and truly _dead_.

* * *

Julieta watched in horror as the Gundam _continued_ to hack Kujan's machine apart. They did not get along, but she did respect his willingness to rush into battle, even if he was not suited for it.

"Finally, _he's fucking dead_."

She jumped in her seat as someone appeared on one of the submonitors. It was Captain Pinkerton, of the _Ra Cailum_. "How did you access Gjallarhorn communications frequencies?"

" _Oh, please, your comms are fucking primitive. It wasn't an effort to get in_."

She bristled at that, but managed to force herself to stay calm. "Well, what did you want, that you decided to do so? Did you just want to gloat?"

" _To deliver a warning. Piss off from attacking Tekkadan. They're under the protection of the United Federation of Planets Starfleet. And I have the ability to make energy weapons work against your anti-energy weapon armor. Do not make the mistake of making me your enemy, little girl. If you think Augus is bad, I am INFINITELY worse._ "

Julieta paused, barely resisting the urge to shudder. Why did that tone trigger such unease in her?

"Captain, Gjallarhorn—"

" _Has no authority over the Federation. Or Tekkadan. Get the hell off of Mars before I MAKE you._ "

Julieta growled, she was tempted to ignore him and strike - however a beam shot from the 0 Gundam Mk-II struck her machine right in the shoulder, blasting it off. " _Listen to my man, little girl._ " The woman spoke threateningly. " _Make one move forward, you die._ "

" _Yeah, see, I_ NEVER _make idle threats. Actually, I don't make_ threats **at all** _. I make_ **promises of pain and suffering**." Ron's eyes turned dead and glassy on the submonitor. " _And I_ always _follow through on my promises_."

Julieta's face drained of blood. She did not know fear often. But this man, not even on the battlefield, was scaring the living shit out of her.

 _"Get the hell off my planet before I take Jade off her leash. She's looking for an excuse_."

As if to prove a point, Jade pulled out six beam sabers at once, holding them between her MS's fingers, glaring menacingly at her machine.

Julieta made the _wise_ decision to fall back… but she planned to come back - unfortunately, Jade and Ron knew that already.

It wasn't as though she could do anything about it, though: against Starfleet, she was nothing.

If Rustal wasn't engaging the _Ra Cailum_ , what chance did she have?

* * *

"'Looking for an excuse', by the way?"

On the monitor, Ron shrugged. " _Was it true?_ " Jade giggled. That was rhetorical: he knew it was true. She WAS looking for an excuse to gut her machine.

"I wouldn't GUT her machine… though I would mentally scar her probably," Jade said shrugging. "Break her a bit, make her realize… well… you know…"

" _Resistance is futile?_ "

"…I know you don't like it when I say that…"

 _"Truth is truth, even IF it's the Borg's fucking catchphrase. I'll leave you to do damage control. God knows you love it_."

Jade grinned. Yes, she did.

She loved it almost as much as she loved that Borg insanity magnet in orbit.

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: Whoops, I'm sorry, did we just kill that dumbass early?**

 **117Jorn: I don't think anyone will complain…**

 **Redemption's Avenger: I'm certainly not. He lasted _far_ too long in series.**

 **Ron the True Fan: One scene was too many.**

 **117Jorn: He shall not be missed.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: YES! Ding-dong, the idiot is dead!**

 **Ja ne!**


	66. Chapter 66

**USS _Ra Cailum_**

* * *

The main problem Sonja was having was that she was too busy to explore her new relationship with her commanding officer.

Was she happy about the new opportunity? FUCK YES.

Was she mad that she and Ron were so busy, even with people helping out, that she had no chance to even try? VERY.

She needed to relieve the tension, somehow.

Then there was her pregnancy. She was seven and a half months pregnant and felt weird.

So did Nena. Her body wasn't human, so she had more difficulties: she was visiting sickbay every other day.

"If I knew how much of a pain in the ass this was going to be, I would've aborted the pregnancy a LONG time ago."

"Oh be honest, you wouldn't even dare." Cassie chimed in as her hologram appeared next to her. "Have you _seen_ all the prep work Jade's done for you and the kids? She loves e'm to death and they haven't even been born yet."

Sonja sighed, but she smiled "Yeah… yeah you're right…" she mused. "Annoying it is… I'm actually kinda excited about this… and afraid…"

"Afraid of being a mom?"

"I'm always so busy… what if I can't spend the time I should-"

"You've got Jade, Nena, Me, Annette and Ron, Sonja." Cassie said smiling. "Not to mention the whole crew. You'll make a kick-ass mom - you _and_ Nena… and Jade, too, when Ron's ready to knock her up."

Sonja tried to picture Jade pregnant. And failed. It wasn't that hard to understand: less than a year ago, Jade was a guy.

Still, nothing she could do. Other then wonder why she was in intense pain all of a sudden.

And why her pants were all… wet…

"Uh-oh."

* * *

On Mars, Jade was busy performing cleanup operations. So much so that the base was operational in less than a day.

And she was beginning to hate people. Human Debris? Space Rat? Who the hell came up with those terms?

And why did they get the term? Because of a simple implant on their backs! Seriously? What the hell?!

"I mean seriously! It's just an implant! A dangerous one before _we_ showed up sure, but it doesn't change your goddamned biology!" She ranted, "The people here are _idiots_ if they think that! I've heard of crazy shit for people to be racist or whatever to another people, but this fucking takes the goddamned cake!"

After she told Ron about it, he was tempted to just take Tekkadan's people and cause Sol to go supernova. But he was not going to do that, as tempting as it was. So he was going to take them with them.

After they dealt with Gjallarhorn: they would assist Tekkadan in their operations, then help them pack up and leave.

Sadly, no one was making it easy: Orga Itsuka refused to make their job less difficult, letting his pride dictate their options. He refused to take the easy option, and wanted to go face-first into danger. It was _really_ starting to get on their nerves. But that aside, most of the people were fairly tolerable: just a bunch of kids who want to live on to the next day. And Jade fully planned to make sure these kids lived beyond this shitty lifestyle they've been stuck with.

At least the prideful fool was seeing that arguing with her and Ron was pointless: they were smarter than he was. His pride refused to let him see the better options, though, so she was going to the Teiwaz base to get that mob bastard that was Tekkadan's boss to let the kids go. Only thing she had to decide was this: would she use a shuttle or a starship?

She'd have to ask Ron.

* * *

"Of all the times to go into labor, NOW is a bad time." Ron was worried for the two women about to give birth for one reason: they were only seven and a half months into their terms.

Babies born this early, even in the 24th Century, did not have a good chance to survive. So Rutia needed help and Ron was going to add his Borg-given wealth of medical expertise to the equation.

There was a third woman in labor: Luna—but she was actually on time, with a full nine-month pregnancy. So she was with the orderlies while Rutia and Ron focused on the other two.

"Boss, you take Sonja, I'll handle Nena!"

"Nena's half-Innovade and I'm better suited for the less complicated all-human baby."

"And that didn't sound racist at all."

"It's the truth and you know it!"

Ron began to take tools of all kinds out before beginning the procedures to keep both Sonja and her baby alive. Ron WOULD just cheat and use nanotechnology, but Rutia would disapprove. And Sonja would attempt to rip his balls off. It would be INSANELY painful for him, even though she'd fail.

"Have you called Jaden-I mean Jade yet?"

"She's still on the ground!"

"Call her!"

"She's-"

"Her children are being born early, you call her right now!" Ron sighed as he activated his comm badge. "Jade! Get up here now!"

" _Ron, I am-_ "

"NENA AND SONJA ARE GIVING BIRTH!"

" _WHAT?! But they're-_ "

"Its early! I know! Get up here NOW!"

" _Shitshitshitshitshit-_ " the comm went dead, clearly she was double-timing it back to the ship.

Three women screaming in pain was enough to make Ron wish he could shut off his hearing. Made it harder to deal with the job at hand.

* * *

While it was more than possible to beam into any section of the ship, Jade had to program the coordinates to do so.

As she didn't, she beamed into transporter room 1. On deck 7. Roughly eight and a half decks from sick bay.

So she was pissed. VERY pissed.

She wasn't going to be there for the birth of her own children!

"MOVE IT OUT OF MY WAY!" Jade screamed as she pushed and shoved any crewmen between her and sick bay - reaching the turbolift, and overriding manual control as she laid down flat. "SICK BAY!" She shouted, and the Turbolift shot up faster than it's regulated for - Jade wincing as she felt the G-Forces of the lift moving, before it came to a stop - causing her to go flying up towards the ceiling from the inertia, but Jade almost gracefully flipped around, landed on the ceiling before flipping back around to land on the ground - before the doors opened and she resumed her dash towards sick bay.

Half a dozen people were bowled over before she reached the doors, which didn't open fast enough for her taste before she leaped in.

"Mind keeping the volume down, Jade?" She looked up to see Ron, covered in a small amount of blood. "They just went to sleep. And I had to deal with three screaming women as well as their children. I don't want to relive it."

The woman blinked in confusion before looking past Ron, seeing two exhausted but happy women holding their babies. "How…"

"I might not be a formal doctor, but I do have the training. You're damn lucky Nena didn't bleed out: Innovades might have a functioning reproductive system, but they weren't meant for use. She nearly bled to death on the table."

Jade didn't pay that much attention to him, as her attention was entirely focused on Sonja and Nena and the two respective bundles they had in their arms. "You… you girls…"

Nena glanced up, looking a bit weak but smiled. "I'm… fine Jade…" she said, raising up the little blue blanket. "Say hi… to Johann Michael Takeo…"

She was a parent. It was a statement of fact before, but now…now it hit her like Ron hitting some dumb bastard in the face.

She had a son. "Oh, boy…"

"You three have fun with baby talk: I have a ship to run." Ron left sickbay, looking exhausted. Jade couldn't blame him.

And for some reason, she was picturing herself in Nena's place with a baby with Ron in her place.

"Hey… don't leave me… and Ayame out…" Sonja said, smirking slightly as she hefted up the pink bundle in her arms.

Jade had a son _and_ daughter.

She looked at her two children, who were sound asleep - now holding the two in her arms… she couldn't help but smile.

"Hey there…" she whispered. "Johann… Ayame… I'm your daddy…" she giggled a bit. "I know it doesn't exactly look like it… it's a whole story… I'll tell you when you get older…"

It was going to be a VERY complicated story.

Nearby, Takeshi was standing next to Luna, as the two looked at their own son, held in Takeshi's arms.

Kenji Yamato.

* * *

While Sonja was busy caring for her first child, Mitod was busy trying to make their lives less annoying by making a new version of the nanolaminate armor.

As a paint.

While it was by no means DEW-proof (against most of their weapons, nothing was energy-weapons proof, just _resistant_ ) it was still better than nothing. And the UNSC (ONI, really) people were taking _buckets_ of it back to their ship.

"Your assistance to the UNSC's war efforts is appreciated, Lieutenant."

"I'm not doing this for your war effort. The only reason I'm not stopping you from taking this shit is because the captain told me not to bother."

"It's all for the survival of the human race, Lieutenant." The Director said. "With this, humanity has a chance of survival against the Covenant. We can't all be as fortunate as your universe to have peaceful first contact."

"You could try talking."

"We did. They responded quite simply by killing our people. So, we will require the instructions to make this so we can send it back to UNSC High Command."

Mitod was about to respond with a patented Ronald Pinkerton Go Fuck Yourself™ but the door opening and the captain himself walking in put an end to it. "Just give them the data, Mitod. No point to fighting about it. Besides, anything more advanced than they can handle, we'll keep away from them."

"Anything that gives us the means of survival." He said, glancing at a datapad device. "This visit alone has provided us with weapons which could easily tip the scales in our favor back home."

"Would it kill you to _try_ diplomacy?"

"Admiral Pinkerton," The Director said, "I know about your Borg implants, so I know you are not an idiot - you've seen all of our files on the Covenant. We attempted diplomacy, and they glassed Harvest. Our existence is an affront against their gods, and they have killed billions more humans than your Dominion War could have ever hoped to kill. They have technology which makes ours look like swords and shields against miniguns and rockets. It is an undeniable - and I may say _fundamental_ quality of man - that when faced with extinction, _every_ alternative is preferable."

"You like the sound of your own voice too much. I never said that you shouldn't defend yourselves, I was saying use back channels, get whatever you can to get them to stand down. This will only prolong the war. Find a way to end it. Now, I'm going down to the surface to talk to Itsuka. He wants to see me."

Church scowled at Ron, but he had a point.

"Very well, I will see if UNSCHighComm can find a back channel."

"You do that." Ron left main engineering, but not before looking back. "And keep your ONI spooks off my ship. I don't want anything going missing."

"You would notice."

"And I would bitch. Make sure no one tries anything."

* * *

Orga Itsuka was a prideful, narrow-minded young man. But Ron couldn't blame him: he had no formal education. No one taught him how to look ahead, how to judge.

Only how to fight and how to die.

"Alright, you wanted to see me. What do you want?"

Orga sighed "Alright… since we are cooperating with you, I feel it's only fair that I let you in on the… _agreement_ I've struck up with Fareed not to long ago." He said.

"What kind of agreement?"

"In short… he wants to make Tekkadan the Kings of Mars."

"…come again?"

"He plans to take control of Gjallarhorn, and when he does… he will place Mars's Gjallarhorn branch under Tekkadan's control." Orga informed, "Pretty much allowing Tekkadan to have total control over Mars."

"Well congrats - what does this have to do with us?"

"I'm not an idiot, Admiral Pinkerton." Orga said, "Something about that man… doesn't sit right with me… So I wanted to ask you something… would Starfleet be willing to accept us? A bunch of space rats and human debris? I want a backup plan… if everything does go to shit here with our deal… I want to ensure that Tekkadan… my family lives to see a better day… a better place to call home."

Ron was unimpressed. "Human debris. Who the hell came up with that term?"

Orga looked at Ron in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"You're human. Where you were born is irrelevant. So you have an extra implant. So what? I have 70% of my body as cybernetic implants. I'm _worse_. I don't CARE who you are or what you are, I care about WHAT you do. You can have the worst parents in history and could be a nice guy. I judge by actions, not what you are."

"…You don't care?"

"Half my crew are the worst disciplined people in Starfleet. I keep them around because they do their jobs and they do them well. What does that tell you?"

Orga sighed "That makes you infinitely better than most people who live here…" he said, "All I want is for my family to have a better future…"

"Couple of things. One: if you're not 16, 17, no combat."

"Excuse me?"

"If you're younger than 16, you don't touch a weapon, you don't even THINK of them." Orga looked at Ron in shock. He expected Ron to throw them into the fire. Instead, his first thing was a 'you have to be this old to fight' condition?

"…Why?"

"We look down on the use of child soldiers. You need to make the choice to be a soldier, not be forced into it, like the Hunters and Huntresses. And you need to have a LIFE before you kill your innocence. Not that you CARE about that: you have no idea what I'm talking about."

"Yeah. You might have to teach us that."

"I thought as much."

The Admiral figured they'd have to work on that. "Well, I have a literal fuckton of teachers in the fleet. Shouldn't be a problem."

"Speaking of… problems…" Ron facepalmed, KNOWING there was a catch. There was always a fucking catch.

"What is it? Your pride making you want to finish what you started instead of packing up and going?"

"Well… yeah. Seeing jobs through is kinda our thing."

Ron sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I feel like I'm not gonna be able to persuade you out of this and I'm not gonna even try. So, here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna lend you Jade and some of our MS, alongside _Galactica_ and _Pegasus_ next time Fareed summons you to a battle.

" _Galactica_ and _Pegasus_?"

"Bigger than the _Ra Cailum_ , less firepower." Ron then had a thought. "I think I can give you some more firepower."

Orga's eyes widened in horror. "Your ship?"

"Unlike my XO, I actually understand the meaning of 'overkill'. I just like to skirt the edge a lot." He grinned. "This will be on the razor's edge."

* * *

Jade raised an eyebrow. "You want to take _Galactica, Pegasus_ and two Commonwealth warships and basically shove them up Rustal's ass as well as an MS squadron."

"The _Fires of Orion_ and _Orion's Fist_ should do the trick."

"A _Glorious Heritage_ -Class heavy cruiser and a fucking _Siege Perilous_ -Class attack ship? That's overkill."

Ron smiled. "Yes it is. It should also serve as a deterrent, showing we have Tekkadan's back. Who in their right mind would attack them after seeing THAT?"

"Iok Kujan would."

"He's dead and doesn't count, Jade: you know that."

"That blond-haired chick that practically _worships_ Rustal?"

"Maybe."

"I could keep going."

"Don't."

"Really, I could."

"Stop."

Ron had a simpler plan: they fight, they break through, he takes the fleet and they run to the next universe. "Handpick your MS attack group. Adama's in command of the operation, though."

"I like Adama and all, but I'd like it more if you were there."

"Maybe so, but I'm needed at Mars for the second half of my troll plan. Besides, you wanted to go with that mafia girl to go shopping after the funeral for her former boss. You go do that: a Raptor can bring you back to the _Orion_ when the operation begins."

"You got it," Jade said, "And I think they prefer the term… _legitimate businessmen_ …"

* * *

Before she went out with Lafter though… she had to watch over her handywork… that being the date between Lafter and Akihiro, watching from a distance with a smirk on her face. She had run into the muscular Tekkadan member a while ago, and had seen how he and Lafter reacted… it was fairly clear that Lafter had a thing for him, and he was just too thick-skulled to really notice.

So, like the little situation with Atra and Mika, she decided to play some matchmaking. This time being a bit more direct, having pulled Akihiro to the side and outright telling him what was going on. The reaction on his face was priceless, as was his confusion as to what to do about this information - to which Jade simply told him to do what any man should do: be themselves.

And it was going well: the two were close, if clumsy. But clumsy or not, they were clearly in love and if Jade knew her boyfriend, Ron was watching over them. But she would never know, as he was either never there or he was very well hidden. Accompanying her was, of course, her new friend: the giant peacock spider.

Who was clearly happy at the matchmaking, if the massive amount of dancing was any indication.

' _I love these guys…_ ' she thought, petting the little spider, as she continued to watch the two, as Lafter was talking… and then suddenly Akihiro went for the kill, and kissed her while she was in mid-sentence, stunning the woman - before she seemed to return it - and the Peacock Spider proceeded to add some jumping into its dance routine. Jade adding a silent whoop of her own.

That was two couples down, god knows how many to go.

Sadly, Jade knew the fun times were over.

It was time to get back to the blood and violence that made up her job as a Mobile Suit pilot.

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: I'm going to miss this universe. At least we're bringing Mikazuki along with us.**

 **Redemption's Avenger: I will too. But at least it brings us one step closer to what I've been waiting for all along…**

 **117Jorn: We've still got a ways to go people.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Agreed - we still have a lot to do.**

 **Ron the True Fan: And we introduce a new, recurring character! (Giant peacock spider suddenly appears) I fucking LOVE peacock spiders!**

 **Ruby: They're so CUTE!**

 **Ja Ne!**


	67. Chapter 67

**USS _Ra Cailum_ \- Captain's Quarters**

* * *

Jade brought her babies to her new quarters, which used to be Takeshi's, then transferred to Ron when he decided to have Annette and Cassie move in with him.

And now Jade was moving in, as she was now Ron's girlfriend.

Comes in handy to know the captain, don't it?

She had succeeded in putting the two children to bed, as she yawned - as she then plopped down into bed alongside a very tired Nena and Sonja. "Well… that was a day and a half…" she sighed, as the two girls nodded.

And eventful it had been. Jade followed Lafter around after the date, mostly to congratulate her… though she spotted a rather shady figure following her, putting her on alert - which were justified when the guy tried to shoot her outside a shop - though thankfully Federation personal shields could halt projectiles easy enough. After beating him up, they quickly learned who he worked for, and well… the retribution from Naze's crew and Akihiro was _biblical_.

Now, with that situation taken care of, Jade was able to spend some downtime with her family and learning how to be a parent. All three women could agree on one fact… it was exhausting.

She DID have one bright spot: the babies LOVED certain colorful arachnids. Ron's many peacock spiders made perfect babysitters for short stints: the dancing spiders were so freaking CUTE, the babies couldn't help but love them.

And one was constantly hanging around Jade, sitting on her shoulder like a damned parrot.

When it refused to leave, Ron offered to make it a flight suit when she went out in combat. The spider's response was… well, it showed that it was MUCH smarter than the average spider by trying to figure out HOW it was going to get that thing on.

That just made it cuter.

"So, are we going to have to worry when you go out there?"

Jade smirked "Come on…" She said, "Their MS, compared to 0 Mk II after all the retrofits, makes theirs look _primitive_. And like hell I'd leave you girls behind on your own…"

"Well, we can always leave the babies in Ron's care and go with you…"

"And traumatize them? They're not ready for that yet."

"Jade, we spent our entire pregnancies around Ron. If he didn't affect them in the womb, he can't do anything now."

That logic fit. Besides, Cassie would make herself available for them at all times.

Now they just needed to get the more powerful warships in the fleet to bear.

* * *

The _Fires of Orion_ , a _Glorious Heritage_ -Class heavy cruiser from an alternate timeline, was Jade's new mothership as it was the only one capable of carrying, launching and recovering Mobile Suits.

The battlestars COULD do it, but not before a massive rebuilding project and the _Orion's Fist_ was a _Siege Perilous_ -Class DSX-2 attack ship, designed to pop in out of nowhere, overwhelm some dumb bastard with an _obscene_ number of missiles and DEWs and get the fuck out of there.

Orga could admit there was a sort of grace to them. And while he thought of a way to beat it (a game he played with himself) there was no way to beat Starfleet technology.

"At least it's on our side." And MIKAZUKI admitting relief was a BAD sign of how fucked they'd be if it were on the other end.

Gjallarhorn was _fucked._

The battlestars were no slouch either. 600cm railgun cannons that could kill or mission kill a _Halfbeak_ in three to four shots? A flak field that would shred any missile or lesser MS that would come close? A point-to-point FTL system and hundreds of fighters armed with Mobile Suit killing missiles?

They could take on every ship Gjallarhorn had and not even _care_.

The two Commonwealth ships were just there to secure the victory.

Good thing they weren't on the other end of that.

On the other hand, victory would be assured if they had the _Ra Cailum_. As everyone went 'most powerful ship = _Ra Cailum_ ', it had to be.

But four VERY deadly warships would do. And even if McGillis lost, who cared? They were leaving soon. And if this went south, they would be leaving with them.

Come to think of it, Orga was tempted to just screw Fareed's 'King of Mars' idea from the get go - the more he learns about Starfleet, the more appealing they were. They didn't care about human debris or space rats, they just cared that they did what needed to be done - and they weren't going to throw them into the fire like others they've worked with have done.

Even _Mika_ was starting to like the Admiral - and _that_ was a very scary thought.

THAT unholy alliance would result in either two things: death or MORE death.

Orga just hoped he'd never see it.

* * *

Julieta was not an idiot. She was a zealot, but not an idiot: while she believed Rastal was fallible, he was VERY good at adapting to the field.

Then she ran into someone far, FAR better at it.

Admiral Ronald Pinkerton of the _Ra Cailum_. He had a general layout of a plan and simply made up the rest as he went along.

It worked far too often for her liking.

Even Master Rastal admitted that this man, Pinkerton, was proving to be less of a thorn in his side… and more of a rusty bastard sword slowly being shoved further into an open wound.

And twisted repeatedly.

He liked doing that. Perhaps TOO much, judging from the fact that he sent four of his top-tier warships to join the fight. She could outright HEAR the bastard laughing.

And as the _Ra Cailum_ and therefore he wasn't even THERE, THAT WAS SAYING SOMETHING!

As those accursed ships flew with the Tekkadan ships and McGillis' ships - they had secured Gjallarhorn's earth HQ, however she knew that Vidar was down there to 'meet' with McGillis and his apparent supporters. All they had to do now… was sit back and wait for them to make their move. She knew it wouldn't end in peace.

But it wasn't her job to question, just to fight. Even if it was suicide.

Then her sensors picked up a single Mobile Suit launching.

The Gundam Barbatos. Her chosen foe.

It was time to go to war.

* * *

"Can those children NOT rush into fire like idiots?" Adama ordered _Galactica_ to engage the enemy, bringing the formidable battlestar into the fight. Their warships were heavily armed, but had little armor compared to _Galactica_ , let alone _Pegasus_.

However, the Tekkadan mobile suits were flying straight into the enemy formation, with little or no regard to their own safety. They were tearing the hornblower MS apart, however.

Things hadn't gone exactly as McGills had planned originally, as the Stars of Gjallarhorn had declared neutrality in the schism between the Farreed and Rastal factions, which meant for McGill's plan to work, Tekkadan had to work on the front line for this battle. So now they were being thrust into the first battle between the two warring factions, as Tekkadan spearheaded the charge to accomplish their mission.

Adama remembered what Ron said about this assignment: they were to serve as a fear factor and not to fire unless fired upon. Considering that the Gjallarhorn idiots were going to shoot at them anyways in the hope of damaging the ships and taking their secrets, he ignored that stipulation. Jade was likely to do the same, as the _Orion_ and the _Fist_ were preparing to attack.

Adama was wondering how well that nanolaminate armor would work against antiproton cannons.

The answer was found soon enough as the two ships obliterated a pair of Rustal's ships in their first volley: not at all.

Which made sense - beam-resistant armor or no, it was still mutually annihilated on contact with any form of antimatter.

Science was a bitch: matter, in this case nanolaminate armor, and antimatter, in this case antiprotons, on impact always resulted in mutual and total annihilation. Deflector shields could limit the damage, but they weren't perfect. So when the _Orion's Fist_ fired her four AP cannons again… the results were predictable.

Complete annihilation for five heavy warships. And that was BEFORE she fired her massive number of missiles at some dumb bastard.

And you thought the _Defiant_ was a gun with engines.

The light show definitely spiked the intimidation factor.

And then some Grazes decided to attack _Galactica._

"Main batteries, open fire."

The area around the battlestar lit up with dozens of explosions, sending shrapnel everywhere, tearing off limbs and other vital components from the MS, even shredding some.

While _Galactica_ wasn't as overpowered as the Commonwealth ships, it was still far more powerful than any Gjallarhorn ship in deployment. Her hypervelocity cannons fired, slamming into a warship and making it go into a fatal spin.

One shell fragment even hit a Mobile Suit, knocking out its' IFF.

* * *

Julieta was shoved back into the pilot's seat as her machine suffered a total systems failure, alarms going off as she attempted to regain control of her custom Reginlaze.

"Move! Damn it!"

Well, it was moving, but only in one direction: forwards.

Which was towards the _Fires of Orion._

And as her IFF was disabled, no one was paying attention to her.

She slammed into the hull of the _Glorious Heritage_ -Class cruiser, getting knocked out on impact. So her career in Gjallarhorn came to an end.

* * *

"Admiral, there's another force of Mobile Suits moving into formation. They appear to be carrying some form of high-powered cannons."

"Full power to shields: get that Tekkadan ship behind us!"

"They're kinda far out sir, but I think I can catch them in a tractor-"

"Just do it!"

And do it they did, as the _Galactica_ activated its tractor beam and stopped the _Isaribi_ in its tracks - before pulling it back. The timing couldn't have been more perfect as the Gjallarhorn forces opened fire with their Dainsleif railguns, having lead their shots - but the _Isaribi's_ sudden shift in course due to the tractor beam caused them to miss their mark as the projectiles passed by harmlessly.

It also saved the lives of several Tekkadan personnel, even saving their newest Gundam-Class MS in the process.

"Frak this. Get that thing docked: we're jumping back to Mars!" It was high time they left.

* * *

"What?! We can't leave!"

" _Get your head out of your ass, you stubborn bastard: if we weren't here, you would've lost a LOST of people today! If you want to save the rest, get your ass in formation and prepare to jump back to Mars! We're leaving_!"

Orga wanted to argue with Adama. But Adama was a trained tactician, infinitely better than he was at managing his people and plans of attack. If Adama was saying leave, he knew it was bad.

So, after recalling all their strike craft, the Tekkadan ships formed up with the Allied vessels and GTFOed.

Now, this isn't giving up. Adama just didn't want any unnecessary loss of life on their side, and he didn't give a fuck about McGillis. So they just left.

But, like the idiots they were, Gjallarhorn wasn't gonna let them go that easily.

They knew one thing: Tekkadan's base and it's location. They knew Ron was pulling out, leaving their solar system, as his fleet was gone. So Tekkadan was going back to Mars to pack up.

But they wanted no survivors. Ron was leaving, so they didn't give a damn about him. But they thought Tekkadan was staying. And they wanted to make sure they didn't cause any more trouble in their future.

* * *

"The good Admiral is pulling out of the system: all of his ships, with the exception of the _Galactica_ and _Pegasus_ , are no longer in Martian orbit." Rastal had regrouped, long after McGillis was finally put down.

He wanted to put an end to the PMC after all the chaos they caused. Tekkadan was a massive problem, and the big man hadn't done anything to stop them. The system needed to be at peace. They needed to destroy Tekkadan, the symbol of rebellion against Gjallarhorn, in one fell swoop in order to secure their control over the solar system.

And Ron was letting them, seemingly.

He wasn't assaulting them. Wasn't stopping them.

He was allowing them to build up their forces in Martian space for some reason, likely this 'Prime Directive' he mentioned once: without McGillis, there was no point.

This was their only chance. Tekkadan was back on their base, support from Teiwaz gone ever since they destroyed JP Trust to avenge their 'brother'. They had the numbers, the firepower… the only thing really standing in their way were those two colossal warships which remained in orbit. But thankfully he knew the real battle wasn't in space - it was on the martian surface.

 _Galactica_ and _Pegasus_ were just there to watch.

Rastal intended to give them a hell of a show.

* * *

Ron intended to be a troll.

"Can that interface pilot a Mobile Suit by remote?"

Jade looked at Ron in surprise. "I think so. …Why?"

"Gjallarhorn wants to kill Tekkadan. I plan to let them think so. Sonja and Nena are busy building copies of their Mobile Suits and machines that we'll rig for remote piloting with one photon torpedo on the ground to cause a very big boom. I want to troll the fuckers for annoying me the entire time."

Jade grinned "It will be done," she said, bowing. "I'll rig up some control systems so they can operate them from the comfort of the _Isaribi_ in orbit. It'll be like one very interactive video game for them."

"Jade, beyond the fact that people can die, it's been nothing _but_ an interactive video game for them since day one." Jade COULD see why he said that, sadly.

They didn't care about the deaths they caused, just the deaths they suffered. They both knew that all the blame laid with the assholes that introduced them to the life, but the facts were cruel.

"My only problem is getting that idiot Orga to be ok with it."

* * *

Orga looked at Ron as if the Admiral were INSANE.

Facing an enemy without being there? Was that even possible?

It was just WRONG.

"No way. We can't do that."

"So, you claim to care about your people, yet you won't take an option that will ensure their survival. You're a fucking hypocrite, Itsuka and I have no fear of calling you out on it. I can and will take you from here. Your choice is either to see your organization go down fighting, or be called coward. Which is it going to be?"

"I can't just… not face them!"

"Look, as far as I'm concerned, you're a naive moron. You have no idea what war is really like. All you know is the front line. You don't know anything but the front line." Ron sighed. "My XO is known to quote some stupid webcomic from the 21st Century. I prefer more tasteful things in terms of war and combat. One is a book called The Art of War by Sun Tsu. You know what it says?"

Orga shook his head. "No. Until a couple years ago, I couldn't even read."

"…Murder is becoming more and more an option in this universe. Well, this is literally the first line in the book." He looked Orga in the eye. "'All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near'. Now, this isn't necessarily true ALL the fucking time. The Art of War is a guideline, something to teach you. But that first line should teach you a lesson. Misdirection isn't cowardice. Only incompetent fools who have no idea how war works when he gets shot in the ass use that word in a context of war. You aren't incompetent. You just don't know better. So what is it going to be, Orga? Are you going to be the fool that kills all his people just to satisfy your pride or will you show wisdom in retreat and saving your people?"

Orga was silent for a good while after that… he was right, he hated to admit it, but he had a point. He had focused so much on following the Tekkadan way, following what he thought to be the best way forward to prove what they could accomplish… he never even thought of it that way. Deception _is_ key, they've seen it time and time again used by Gjallarhorn, JP Trust… he just never wanted to stoop to that same low, to prove they were better than that… but Pinkerton has lied and cheated all of his foes before, and yet his crew - as insane as they may be - still have complete and utter trust in him.

…no…

…he wasn't getting anymore of his family killed.

"…get our ship set up." Orga said. "I'll get them ready."

"Glad to hear it." He then produced a PADD and handed it over.

"The Art of War. You'll learn that every effective leader lies and cheats their enemies… but never their allies." Ron left before seeing Orga's jaw drop.

"…I never thought of that."

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: No, Orga, you were too busy setting up Leeroy Jenkins attacks. God, this is why child soldiers are such a stupid idea.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Point. Still, we're in the process of wrapping up IBO - just one or two more chapters to go, and it's on to the next stop!**

 **117Jorn: Hate to be Gjallarhorn right about now…**

 **Redemption's Avenger: Yeah… death and destruction for the idiots!**

 **Ron the True Fan: Boom.**

 **Ja Ne!**


	68. Chapter 68

**Location: Unknown**

 **Time: Unknown**

* * *

Ron decided to see the surviving members of Tekkadan to lay down the new rules.

He knew they ALL wanted to fight, but he was going to follow the law: if they weren't 17, they were going nowhere. He did not want them near any combat stations.

They didn't understand and didn't care: from what he heard from the security people, they were downright pissed about not having any combat jobs.

Frankly, he didn't give two shits whether or not they were angry, as they had a hell of a better time with them then back in their home universe: Orga may have cared for them, but he was eventually going to get them all killed.

That being said though, he was thankful that Jade had largely taken over the duties of handling the mercenaries - her and her Ex-Celestial Being personnel having dealt with similar situations before (see Setsuna), and were helping find some compromises. While anyone under 17 didn't have combat-oriented jobs, she gave them other menial duties which were just as important when maintaining the ships - which also educated them on modern Starfleet technology and policies. Jade having mentioned they had an affinity towards engineering, though it would be a while before they were anywhere close to her or Sonja's level.

That still left more of the more… rebellious people who thought they knew better. They didn't, as he entered the room they were in, with Orga trying to keep them in line. "Ok, what the hell do you people want from me?"

One of the younger boys glared at Ron. "You took us off of combat duty. Why?"

"Because you're too young for combat. How the hell you don't get that, I don't understand. Bitching at me isn't going to change that."

"We've been fighting for our whole lives!" One of the children shouted, "We can handle-"

"NO YOU CAN'T!" Ron shouted, slamming his fist into the table - cracking it, and causing the children to all jump and flinch.

"You were cheated of a childhood, treated as cannon fodder for someone else. Even Orga, as much as he cared, would make you risk your lives for nothing. Hate to say it, but your pride'd get them killed the way you operated, Orga." Orga winced, but concided: he was right.

"If you can't even fight one of my security officers, which you can't, trust me, you have no place in combat. When you're older, that can change."

" _Bridge to captain._ "

Ron looked towards the ceiling. "Yes, Cassie?"

" _We're picking something up. Mind coming back to the bridge?_ "

"Gladly." He looked at Orga. "Sort this out or I'll do it for you. And it will NOT be gentle."

* * *

He arrived back on the bridge, seeing the view of the planet. "Jupiter."

"We're half a million kilometers from Ganymede, picking up some weird shit."

Ron chuckled. "Define 'weird shit'."

"Some sort of facility on the moon… detecting something large and organic within a massive dome…" Corpsa reported, "Whatever it is, it's about as big as the _Ra Cailum_."

Ron shrugged. "Eh, lots of ships are bigger than us. Doesn't mean they outgun us. Tactical analysis."

"Hard to tell," came Corpsa's reply, the Andorian sounding somewhat confused. "It's… it's giving off readings remarkably similar to an Undine Bioship, but considerably warped. We might need to call in that sorcerer friend of yours for a more detailed analysis."

"He pops up when he wants to. Cloak the fleet, jump them out; we're going in for a closer look."

As the rest of the fleet jumped out in flashes of light, the _Ra Calium_ shimmered from view, closing in on the moon.

"Make anything else out?"

Corpsa frowned. "Not much, other than it's ancient. Hold on - subspace opening, a ship's emerging!"

A blue 'hole' in space appeared, spitting out a purple-blue ship of some kind.

"That's new."

"Sensors indicate that it's partially built from organic materials. Lightly armed with some form of pulse weapons, though for its' size, that's pretty heavy."

"Their version of the _Defiant_ , I suppose. Keep an eye out."

"Outbound transmission from Ganymede. Patching it through." Corpsa activated the comm.

" _IXP One to Base, IXP One to Base, ready to begin transference._ "

Ron looked at Cassie, who shrugged. "The fuck?"

" _Subject is approaching target. Repeat, subject is approaching target_."

"I have a bad feeling about this. Yellow alert. Stand by weapons."

" _Oh, my God. It's moving. IT'S MOVING_!"

A loud screech ripped through the bridge. "THE FUCK WAS THAT?!"

"I… think shit's hitting the fan down there…" Jade mused, "So… do we intervene or step away slowly, Cap?"

"Sadly, it's not shooting at us. Prime Directive applies."

"Oh, come on—"

"Every other situation involved some dumbass shooting at us, Jade. It's not shooting at us. Riza, back us off. Set a course out of the Sol System but keep a sensor lock on both those ships."

"Aye sir."

* * *

Eight hours later, a couple of light-years away from Sol, alarms went off as a ship was detected approaching the fleet.

Well, approaching the _Ra Cailum_ : the rest of the fleet was cloaked, using the cloaks on the Romulan and Klingon ships to make a massive 'cloak field'.

"What's the status on the ship?" Ron asked.

"Well, it's a fairly primitive design," Corpsa reported, "Artificial gravity generated via rotating blocks… Titanium armor plating, various light energy weapons, and enough room for a crew of a thousand and small fighter craft."

"In Short?"

"Minimal threat to us, sir."

Ron looked over the analysis: plasma/X-ray lasers, pulse cannons and interceptor pulse weapons. It wouldn't be a threat to anything from the 23rd Century onward, but the damn thing would outgun the legendary NX-Class and in a massive horde would actually pose a threat to the _Ra Cailum_.

"Ignore it."

"Hate to say it, sir, but they're hailing us."

Ron groaned as he sat back in his chair. "Open a channel. Maybe we can get them to piss off."

The screen showed the bridge of the ship, filled with men and women wearing blue uniforms. " _This is Captain Drake of the Earth Alliance destroyer_ Nimrod _. State your identity_."

"Captain Ronald Pinkerton of the Federation starship _Ra Cailum_. How can I help you?"

" _You're human? Good, that makes this easier._ " The Captain said, " _By order of President Clark of the Earth Alliance, you are ordered to relinquish command of your vessel to the Alliance navy. This will be your only warning before we open fire._ "

There was a prolonged silence on the bridge… before suddenly everyone began laughing their assess off.

"If I had a strip of latinum for every time someone threatened us, I'd be able to buy out the Ferengi Alliance." Something that the Ferengi were VERY happy about. "Thankfully, while you've threatened my ship and crew, you haven't fired yet, so…" He waved at him. "Bye." The link cut out. "Set a course for Epsilon Eridani, Warp 5. Tell the fleet to group up there."

* * *

"He hung up on me. Lock target! Prepare to fire!" The ' _Ra Cailum_ ' then banked, showing off her underbelly before her outboard nacelles glowed and the ship… stretched into the distance, disappearing in a flash of light.

"…The fuck was that?!"

* * *

"Alright… Earth Alliance, _Omega_ -class Destroyers, the _White Star_ …" The XCOM personnel mused over the findings. "Looks like we're in Babylon 5, Captain."

"Which is…?"

"Another sci fi series, similar to Star Trek. Very popular. It's mostly centered around the exploits of the space station Babylon 5… did that Captain happen to mention whose President at the moment?"

"Clark."

"William Clark, DAMN, we're in Season 2 and after."

"We ran into a black spider thing over Ganymede. Kept our distance—"

"Messages from Earth."

Ron accessed the XCOM database using his implants, finding the series and episode in question. He also noted that Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5 were VERY similar. Hell, the _White Star_ and the NX- _Defiant_ were nigh-clones of one another.

That said, the Shadows seemed somewhat… disturbing. And Ron had to agree with Corpsa on one thing—Ryu would probably be a better subject matter expert than anyone else, as the Shadows seemed to be the kind of _wrong_ he dealt with on a regular basis.

"Babylon 5 is in the Epsilon Eridani system, isn't it? We should be there in a few days if we keep to low warp speed." Ron was in no rush: he saw no threat to the fleet or anything else. If anyone wanted to threaten the fleet, they could handle it. So far, there was very little that COULD threaten the safety of the fleet.

He pursed his lips. That was getting a tad bit arrogant. If that kept up, he'd get them all killed.

"We'll fill you in on what _should_ be happening, according to the TV show," the XCOM personnel informed. "We can confirm precise timing once we get there, and then can plan out our course of action from that point."

"And I can figure out how much blood I'm going to be letting loose." Ron had zero intention of allowing humanity here to remain under a despot. He just had to goad them into shooting at him first and keeping his ship intact in the process.

* * *

John Carver was an EarthGov Marine, but with all of the _Ra Cailum's_ security people, he was left without a job.

So here he was. Watching the Starfleet version of TV.

In this case, pirated signals from the local universe.

Which, currently, was set on Earth's central news channel.

Right now, it didn't look good.

" _President Clarke has signed a martial law order, all civilian traffic between planets and systems has been shut down. More on the story as it develops."_

"Everything's going straight to shit, just like back home before we killed the moons."

"Before the _Laehval_ killed the moons: we just pissed off the necromorphs." Isaac corrected.

Carver shrugged as he continued watching ISN. He really had nothing to do. He wasn't officially part of the _Ra Cailum's_ security force, they didn't storm planets on a regular basis…

He was bored.

"Something better come along soon that I can shoot, I'm tired of letting the Mobile Suits do all the work."

The Moon-killer smiled and rested a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Don't worry, with all this shit going on, I'm sure there's gonna be something to do."

* * *

The station was finally in sight, giving them a good view of Babylon 5. While technically it was an Island-3 O'Neill-Class space colony, it differed in that it had no open 'sky-ports' and the solar reflectors were fixed mid-station. It was based on the design, but radically different.

Ron nodded. "Nice. Well, time to stop eyeballing the station. Cassie, what's going on in there?"

"Chaos: apparently, martial law isn't exactly popular and neither is Nightwatch. They're arresting people at random."

"Gestapo in the 23rd Century. I feel sickened. Prep a security team: I know they'll trap the majority, but I want the rest dealt with."

Cassie looked at Ron. "Lethal or non-lethal?"

"Whichever is more efficient. I don't care."

"I'll send in Noble then. "

"Spread the fleet around the station. When those two _Omegas_ come in, I'll scare them with the _Ra Calium._ When they get reinforced, I'll scare them with the fleet."

Jade cackled. "I love it. I'll go over to the station to further fuck things over. See ya later!"

Ron nodded as he looked at B5. "two and a half million tons of metal. All alone in the night. Something I can relate to."

* * *

"May I have your attention, please?"

John Sheridan was feeling a little smug. He had EVERY right.

After all, it's not often you can fuck someone over with legal bullshit like this.

"As of this time, 0315 Earth Standard Time, I am placing you under arrest for conspiracy of mutiny and failure to obey the rightful chain of command. The order for Nightwatch to take over Babylon 5 security came from the Political Office. The Political Office, despite it's connections to the president, is outside the direct chain of command. Orders affecting military personnel must come from within the military hierarchy, starting with the president, through the Joint Chiefs of Staff to your immediate superior officers. A senator cannot give you a direct order. A governor cannot give you a direct order and neither can the Political Office. Make no mistake, this is an illegal order."

And he was right: the only civilian that could give orders to a soldier was the president himself. And he was too busy, so he set up the Ministry of Peace and Nightwatch to act as his arms. Sadly, the Alliance constitution was VERY clear on the way of things.

"Now, we've contacted Earthdome and requested confirmation of this order through proper channels. But, since we seem to be having trouble with communications, this may take several days. Until then, you have two choices. You can stay where you are, or you can leave, one at a time. On your way out, you'll turn in your link, identicard, and weapons. You'll be restricted to quarters until the revised orders come in. When that happens, anyone who wants to file a complaint against me can do so. Otherwise…have a pleasant stay." He turned to leave. "Oh, and _one_ other thing. If I were you, I wouldn't use my weapons on the airlocks. They're a solid beryllium alloy. The ricochet is a killer."

Inside, one of the Nightwatch morons was actually pointing his weapon at the door as he heard the warning before pausing in horror.

Elsewhere on the station, the six Spartans of Noble Team plus Jade had materialized just in time to listen to Sheridan's little speech. "Ohhh, Ron's gonna like him," Jade giggled, glancing at the Spartans. "Alright, you know the drill. Active Camo from here on out until the fireworks kick off - avoid running into anyone, and let's do our best to make life for Mr. Sheridan a little easier, hm?"

"So, we watch out for Nightwatch personnel."

"And do whatever it takes to keep them from stupid shit. Like killing people."

* * *

The _Ra Cailum_ made a wide loop around the planet, making a show of it for Babylon 5 by making itself visible to them only on the other side of the planet before making their approach. He didn't want to show off the cloak until it was too late.

"Open a channel to Babylon Control."

"Channel open."

"Babylon 5, this is the United Federation of Planets starship _Ra Calium._ Please respond."

Mumbling was heard across the line. " _Federation of Planets? Wait one_ Ra Calium _._ "

He waited for a few seconds. "B5 Control, _Ra Cailum_ Actual: I will be entering a parking orbit momentarily. I would like to inform you that any attempt to fire on this ship will result in… damage to your station. And absolutely none to my ship."

The voice of Susan Ivanova soon came in. " _Is that a threat, Captain_?"

"Merely a fact. Nothing more."

" _Very well. Parking orbit is approved. Captain Sheridan is on his way, he will want to have a word with you."_

"And I with him. I can wait."

Ron looked back at Cassie. "Prep a shuttle. I'll be riding it over."

"No beaming?"

"Not yet. Not until we need to."

* * *

"Less than two thirds the size of an _Omega_ -Class destroyer, power readings off the charts and it has a human name. Any ideas how nuts this thing is?"

Sheridan shook his head "Well, they aren't with Clark, so that's a good sign," he said. "And they decided to talk first, so they're civilized at least."

"They threatened us."

"Susan, they warned us not to initiate hostilities; there's a difference."

The airlock doors opened, allowing a human male to exit wearing a more subdued uniform in black and grey with a red undershirt with four gold rank pips of some kind with a brooch on his left breast. "You must be Captain Sheridan. Captain Ronald Pinkerton, UFP starship _Ra Cailum_."

"I am. You're gonna have to explain how that works."

"Simple explanation is alternate universes. I'll explain in detail on the way."

Sheridan blinked at that info, however he simply nodded as he guided the UFP Captain further into the station. "Alternate universes… I'd say it's the craziest thing I've heard of, but… well, it isn't really."

"We've been on an odyssey, as it were: this is actually just the latest universe we've stopped in. And we're going to stay for a while: we have to repair our wormhole drive before we leave. Babylon 5 looks like a safe place to put down."

"Not as safe as you think, Captain. We're in the middle of a civil war."

"If Babylon 5 couldn't hurt my ship, none of yours can. Consider the station under my protection."

Once more, Sheridan looked rather surprise at the man's statement "I… see," he said, "Thank you, Captain… though I'm not sure you'll want to once you're more… filled into the situation."

"Trust me, Captain." Ron said, with a small smirk adorn on his face. "We are more informed on the situation than you may realize."

"Well, care to inform me?"

"You're about to have company. I suggest we move to C&C to keep an eye out." Sheridan chuckled as they moved off towards the command center.

* * *

Corpsa was not surprised when a jump point opened, spitting out the EAS _Alexander_. "That database was accurate."

"At least we're providing a wide-band jamming field to keep any idiot from contacting Clarke. Contact the captain: ask if he wants to provide an engineering crew to repair the _Alexander_."

"Sure thing." Cassie opened a comm line. "You hear that love?"

" _Yup. Hail them, and ask. If they don't want us, then they don't want us. Keep an eye out though. Earthforce will be coming."_

"We're on yellow alert. If anyone shows up, they're getting shot."

" _Don't be so trigger-happy: the EAS_ Churchill _will be arriving soon. Other than her, every other Alliance ship is to be treated as hostile_."

"And you told me not to be trigger happy. Pot calling the kettle black."

* * *

Outwardly, Ron was still listening to Sheridan and Ryan, but he already knew what was about to happen.

"Major, would you object to my engineering teams repairing your ship?"

Ryan looked at Ron. "As you outgun both my ship and Babylon 5, though I'm not sure how, I'll allow the help."

"You'll see." Ron said, tapping his badge "Pinkerton to _Ra Cailum._ "

" _Yeah Boss?_ "

"Get your people over to the _Alexander_ , that ship needs some repairs."

" _Understood - already got the gear packed and teams ready._ " Sonja said, " _Give us a few hours and she'll be as good as new._ "

"You've got two. Pinkerton out." He looked at Sheridan. "My engineers are the best in the fleet. And we can turn rocks into replicators. Literally. I've done it myself."

Sheridan and Ryan shared a glance. "You're insane."

"So they say!" He grinned, then began laughing insanely.

"I pity whoever has to deal with you."

"I have many who have been… corrupted by my insanity. They're better for it."

Ryan shuddered, holding his hands up. "I don't wanna be one of them."

Ron grinned wider. "You don't have any choice in the matter. After all… resistance is futile."

Ryan beat feet _real_ fast after that, even as Ron started cracking up. "Gets them everytime."

"You scared him."

"Like the bombing of Mars will you?"

Sheridan blinked. "What?"

"Neural transceiver in my spine: the _Ra Cailum_ intercepted a call and sent it to me."

Sheridan didn't bother questioning it. Insanity was his thing.

* * *

 **Ron the True Fan: Yes. It is. Like a peacock spider just waiting, watching… dancing…**

 **Takeshi Yamato: You and those spiders. (shakes head good-naturedly)**

 **Anyway. Babylon 5. One of what I think could be considered the 'Big 3' Live-Action TV Sci-Fi franchises in North America (the other two being Star Trek and BSG [Star Wars is even bigger, but doesn't really count as it's never been a _Live-Action TV series_ , AFAIK]).**

 **Ron the True Fan: And you refuse to watch it because you don't find it interesting.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: It is somewhat intriguing, but with everything on my plate - games, this, other fics, etc. - I have to budget my time, and binge-watching something requires a bit more interest than what B5 generates for me - I can content myself with YouTube clips every now and then. Same with BSG. Star Trek has the edge because I was introduced to that in my single-digit years - I practically _grew up_ with it. B5 was around the same time as DS9, IIRC, but my family didn't have cable back then, so we stuck with Star Trek.**

 **117Jorn: We give you… the last, best hope for peace in the galaxy… BABYLON 5!**

 **(Peacock spider dances goodbye)**


End file.
